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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
OF MICHIGAN 



A STUDY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE 

LOWER PENINSULA DURING THE 

TERRITORIAL PERIOD 

1805-1837 

BY 

GEORGE NEWMAN FULLER, Ph. D. 




WYNKOOP HALLENBECK CRAWFORD CO., STATE PRINTERS 
LANSING, MICHIGAN, 1916 



Mono:^raph 



Fsu 



TO MY UNCLE, 

NEWMAN A. FULLER, 

WHOSE GENEROSITY HAS ENABLED ME 

TO RENDER TO MY NATIVE STATE THIS SERVICE, 

THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 

D. of D. 
JUN \ 1917 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

It is impossible to acknowledge adequately the debt 
I owe to all of those who have so generously aided me 
in finding and studying my sources. To my master, 
Professor Claude H. Van Tyne, Head of the Depart- 
ment of History in the University of Michigan, I wish 
specially to express my deep obligation for indispen- 
sable aid received at every stage of the work. Special 
acknowledgments are due to Professor Edward Ray- 
mond Ttirner, also of the University, for invaluable 
suggestions in preparing the manuscript, and to Pro- 
fessors Wilbur C. Abbott and Max Farrand of Yale, 
for assistance received in the inception of the work. 

It would seem almost invidious to particularize the 
officers and attendants of the University Library, the 
State Library, the Burton Library, and the city li- 
braries of Michigan, especially those of Detroit and 
Grand Rapids, who have been uniformly generous in 
extending privileges to facilitate these researches. 

The selection of the subject of this work grew out of 
an interest in Michigan history begun in early years 
and a desire to make some return to my native State 
for the advantages I have received from her. The 
work is now presented as a token of esteem for the 
pioneer builders of the commonwealth, and to their 
descendants I wish to express sincere gratitude for the 
encouragement that has lightened my labor. 



PREFACE 

TT has been the hope of the author to call atten- 
tion to the fertile field which lies at the beginning 
of Michigan's history as an agricultural commonwealth 
under American institutions. So far from being ex- 
haustive, this treatise is but an introduction to the 
subject. Many of its topics could be expanded into 
useful monographs. For example, the War of 1812 in 
relation to the Michigan frontier is here but lightly 
touched upon; the succeeding financial crisis — espe- 
cially in relation to other factors causing emigration 
from the eastern states — the dissemination of knowl- 
edge about Michigan in the East and abroad, the 
several land and Indian questions, the rise of lake 
commerce, and many other subjects equally obvious — 
all would yield richly to the research of the patient 
student. 

The place of the monograph will be clear in the light 
of previous works on Michigan. The books that have 
appeared hitherto are very general accounts in which 
economic and social factors are incidental; here, as the 
leading title is intended to suggest, we are concerned 
only with those facts which bear directly upon the 
beginnings of Michigan's economic and social history. 

And if we except the fur trade, the period of Michi- 
gan Territory is well within those beginnings. Before 
then the spirit of the French period was unfavorable 



VI PREFACE 

to the advance of agriculture. The fur trader wished 
the forests to stand to protect the fur-bearing animals ; 
the missionary wished the frontier distant to preserve 
his Indian converts from the influence of the white 
settlements; in the paternalism and militarism of that 
period there was little room for popular activity- 
through local civil institutions; and there was little 
immigration and permanent home-building; after more 
than a century of French occupation only a few hun- 
dred families had been planted in the whole of the 
southern peninsula, mainly at one point, and these 
families were interested principally in the fur trade. 
The periods of British and early American occupa- 
tion were not essentially different. It was the opinion 
of Major John Biddle, who was at the head of the 
Detroit Land Office during most of the Territorial 
period, that "as an American community, founding its 
prosperity upon the permanent resources of its own 
industry, Michigan may date its origin in 1818.^" This 
was an interpretation by a man of practical affairs 
speaking near the close of the Territorial period from 
the viewpoint of the tremendous impulse given to the 
development of agriculture, industry and commerce by 
the opening of public land sales at Detroit and the 
beginning of steam navigation on the Great Lakes. 

The close of Michigan's Territorial history marks 
also the close of a quite distinct economic period. The 
years preceding 1837 saw such unprecedented accelera- 
tion of economic growth and prosperity, and the stag- 
nation of all activities following the financial crisis of 

1. Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan (Detroit, 
1834), 163. 



PREFACE vii 

1837 was so general and complete, that these years are 
marked off distinctly from all that followed. 

The author has employed the somewhat vague term 
"settlement" to indicate the process by which an 
immigrant population adjusts itself to a new environ- 
ment. The factors in this process, as here considered, 
may be gathered into four groups, which while they 
blend into one another, are fairly distinguishable and 
correspond approximately to four phases of this ad- 
justment. They center about (1) governmental aids, 
(2) immigration, (3) active pioneering and (4) institu- 
tional growth. The first group involves the military- 
protection of the frontier, the extinguishing of Indian 
titles, the surveying of lands, the establishment of 
land offices, the regulation of land sales, the organizing 
of cotmties and townships, and the improvement of 
facilities for transportation. The second group con- 
cerns the sources of population — why people left their 
old homes, why they came to Michigan, how they 
reached Michigan, and the qualities, habits and ideals 
which they brought with them. A third group relates 
to clearing the forest, cutting roads, breaking the lands, 
building homes and villages, and establishing the local 
institutions of community life. A fourth group deals 
with subsequent growth, when with immigrants still 
coming in great numbers, institutions began to take on 
a permanent character; here are noted the checks and 
stimuli of institutional growth and the comparative 
rate and amount of growth in different periods, the 
relative tendencies to village and city life, and the con- 
centration of rural population, the interaction of rural 
and urban growth, especially with reference to im- 



viii . PREFACE 

provements in transportation, and the distinguishing 
features of large centers of population. 

The first two chapters are introductory. Chapter I 
gives a general survey of the geologic and physical con- 
ditions which affected the economic development of the 
Territory as a whole. Chapter II treats the essential 
checks and stimuli other than these. Together they 
should help to unify the chapters that follow. 

The subsequent chapters are based mainly upon those 
physiographic agents which influenced the time, rate, 
amount and distribution of population. The part of 
the Territory affected by immigration before 1837 ap- 
pears to divide naturally on this basis into a half dozen 
settlement areas. First, there are the counties of Mon- 
roe, Wayne, Macomb and St. Clair which have many 
common physical features, the earliest lands to be set- 
tled by the French- Canadians and by settlers from 
eastern states. Oakland, Washtenaw and Lenawee 
were the first inland counties to receive immigrants and 
each represents a great line of immigration along which 
population moved to the interior, respectively north- 
west to the Saginaw country, west to the valleys of the 
Kalamazoo and Grand rivers, and to the St. Joseph 
country in southwestern Michigan. Each of the four 
river valleys, the St. Joseph, the Kalamazoo, the Sag- 
inaw and the Grand, make a natural area of settle- 
ment. The concluding chapters deal with the sources 
and character of the new population and present a brief 
resume. 

The author can of course claim no more for the ac- 
curacy of the results than is warranted by the nature 
of the materials with which some parts of the work have 



PREFACE ix 

had to be done. Secondary materials, and not of the 
best kind, have been in some cases the only possible 
recourse; but where used these have been carefully 
pointed out. It should be said of the county histories 
that despite their frankly commercial nature a few of 
them show real insight into local problems and deal 
with them intelligently, while others deserve special 
praise for fullness of detail obviously gathered pains- 
takingly. 

In another class are the pioneer reminiscences, many 
of which are trustworthy and useful. The habit of 
keeping a diary, or journal of events, common in the 
early days made it possible for a pioneer to refresh the 
memory later; many printed reminiscences profess to 
be an embodiment of facts set down in this manner 
years before. For some phases of the subject — as the 
nativity of settlers, the conditions of early travel and 
transportation, the founding of settlements, and con- 
temporary local opinion — this material furnishes often 
about all the information that is obtainable. The vol- 
umes of the Michigan Historical Collections are a mine 
of this material and have been heavily drawn upon. 

The early newspapers have also been used exten- 
sively. They contain much unconscious testimony of 
early conditions, especially in the advertisements, and 
in some aspects of the subject they are quite as valu- 
able for what they led immigrants to believe about 
Michigan or about certain localities as for the truth of 
their statements. Many of them were started as ad- 
vertising mediums to "boom" their localities and were 
widely circulated in the East by speculators. 

So far as possible the author has checked these ma- 



X PREFACE 

terials from the more reliable classes of data, as the 
laws, legislative journals, executive documents, court 
reports, censuses and accredited monographs. Refer- 
ences are given for all statements taken from them. 
The vast amount of detail from various sources which 
the author has examined on every point should of 
itself afford sufficient check to prevent serious errors. 

In this pioneer attempt the aim has been to be logi- 
cal, accurate and clear, rather than literary; the au- 
thor will gladly welcome criticism and correction. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

Physical Conditions 

A. Introduction ■ • i: ' "; " ' ' IW ' 

I. Close relation of geology and geography to settle- 

ment 

II. Scope of treatment in this chapter 

B. Influences of geographic location 1 

I. Latitude and longitude _ 

II Glacial influence on topography, dramage and soil 

III. Climate: interaction of the Great Lakes and the 

westerly winds 

IV. Fauna and flora 

V. Population and institutions 

VI. Commerce: the Great Lakes 

2 

C. Climate 

I. Chief agents 

1. Latitude 

2. Lake Michigan 

3. Westerly winds 

4. Topography 

5. Rainfall 

6. Forests 

II. Characteristics 

1. Equable temperature . 

2 Absence of extremes of temperature and ram- 
fall 
3. Growing period prolonged 

III. Health 

1. Diseases not favored 

2. Influences correlative with climate 

3. Compared with other states 

4. Early unfavorable reports 

5. Prevalence of "fever and ague" 

6. Imprudences of settlers 



xii CONTENTS 

D. Geology 10 

I. The three great epochs 

II. The bed rocks 

1. Basin arrangement 

2. Elevation 

3. Importance to settlement 

a. Minerals 

1) Minerals important to early settle- 

ment 

a) Salt 

(1) Constituent of soil 

(2) Chemical use 

(3) Common use 

(4) Importance how recog- 

nized 

(a) By government 

tax 

(b) By emphasis in 

early geologi- 
cal reports 

(5) Where and how found 

(a) Brine springs 

(b) Salt licks 

(6) Later exploitation 

b) Building materials 

(1) Clay 

(2) Sandstone 

(3) Limestone 

(4) Sand and gravels 

(5) Boulders 

2) Other minerals slightly exploited 

a) Coal 

b) Gypsum 

3) Mineral waters 

b. Relation of bed rock to soils 

1) As an original source of materials 

2) As affecting present distribution 

a) Limestone 

b) Sandstone 

c) Clay 

d) Mixture over the coal meas- 

ures 



CONTENTS xiii 

E. Soils 14 

I. Formation 

1. Preglacial tipheavals in northern regions 

2. Glacial action 

II. Depth of soil 
III.. Fineness 

1 . United States soil classification for Mich- 
igan 

IV. Distribution 

1. Glacial outwash aprons 

2. Lake and glacial drainage 

3. Morainal deposits 

4. Till plains 

5. Lake clay 

V. General advantages of these soils 

1. Variety 

a. Chemical composition 

b. Mechanical composition 

c. Basis for variety of flora and of 

rural industries 

2. Comparative wannth 

a. Sand gains heat rapidly and loses 

it slowly 

b. Clay moderates these qualities 

3. Moisture well proportioned 

a. Depth and clay element prevent 

drying out 

b. Porosity of sand element prevents 

drowning of crops 

c. Absence of irreclaimable marshes 

4. Easy to work 

a. Fineness of surface soil 

b. Comparative freedom from stones 

c. Few barren outcrops 

d. Not too adhesive because of mix- 

ture of clay and sand 

e. Not easily washed away 

5. Endurance under wasteful farming due 

to limestone 

6. Variations, owing to predominance of 

sand, clay or limestone 
F. Topography 18 

I. Resultant of two forces considered 

II. Relation to neighboring regions 



xiv CONTENTS 

III. Modifications 

1 . By unequal resistance of bed rocks 

2. By post-glacial deposits 

IV. Forces determining area 

V. The area settled before 1837 

VI. The shore lands 

VII. Surface configuration: how favorable to agri- 
culture, grazing, lumbering and manufac- 
ture 

1. The Grand-Maple-Saginaw Valley 

2. The southeastern watershed 

3. The interior hills 
• 4. The intervales 

5. The northern watershed 
G. Rivers 22 

I. General character 

II. Southeastern rivers 

1. The Raisin 

2. The Huron 

3. The Clinton 

4. The Saginaw 

5. The St. Clair 

III. Central and southwestern rivers 

1. The St. Joseph 

2. The Kalamazoo 

3. The Grand 

IV. Importance of these rivers to early settlement 

1 . French settlements at river mouths 

2. American settlers seek power sites 

a. Importance of water powei 

3. Their search facilitated by Indian trails 

along the streams 

4. Village sites at junction of creeks with 

rivers 

5. Village sites at junction of streams with 

Indian trails 

6. Early settlements in the eastern water 

power belt 

7. Water power on the southwestern rivers 

8. The importance of creeks and smaller 

streams 

9. The regulating influence of small lakes 
10. Transportation of logs and lumber 

a. Necessity of economy 



CONTENTS XV 

b. Area served by a single mill 
0. Extent of early lumbering 

1) Confined to streams 

2) Average annual product 

d. Importance of streams to later 
lumbering 
11. Navigation 

a. On the eastern rivers 

b. On the St. Joseph River 

c. On the Kalamazoo River 

d. On the Grand River 

e. Improvements of navigation 

H. The Great Lakes 30 

I. Geological origin 

II. Importance for navigation 

1. Extent of use by settlers 

2. Natural harbors 

3. Beginnings of Great Lakes commerce 

III. Importance of the fisheries 

1. Extent of the early fishing industry 

2. Early accounts of the Great Lakes fish 

3. Varieties of fish 

4. Extent of the early market 

I. The inland lakes 32 

I. Origin 

II. Nimiber, size and depth 

III. The character of their environment: beauty 

IV. Their fish and aquatic fowls 

V. Attitude of the early settlers towards them 
J. Lake formations 34 



I. 


Marl 


II. 


Peat 


III. 


Muck 


IV. 


Meadow 


V. 


Prairie 



K. Flora: the forests 35 

I. As a basis of soil classification 

II. Relation of the forests to settlement 

1. Protection to soil 

2. Effect upon climate 

3. Effect upon health 

4. Their density an obstacle 

5. Lumbering 



xvi CONTENTS 

III. Variety 

1. Compared with Great Britain 

2. Causes of variety 

3. Lumbering 

a. Latitude 

b. River valleys 

c. Streams and swamps 

d. Uplands 

e. Kinds of soil 

IV. Density 

1. Variations of soil with density 

2. Relative positions of areas of different 

densities 

V. Timbers indicating fertility 

L. Settlement in relation to density of forest 37 

I. Crops specially adapted to various densities 

II. Obstacles to getting first crops 

III. Methods of preparing for first crop 

IV. The easiest first crop 

V. Yield of the first crop 

VI. Comparative quickness of yield 

VII. Increase of yield with successive crops 

VIII. Cost of getting first crop 

IX. Attitude of settlers towards different densities 

M. Wild flora and fauna useful to settlers 44 

N. Obnoxious fauna 45 



CHAPTER II 

General Influences 

A. Effects of the War of 1812 49 

I. Ill effects 

1. Depopulation of the Territory 

2. Destitution of the returning settlers 

3. Annoyance from the Indians 

4. Financial crisis 

II. Good effects 

1. Economic distress in the East caused emigra- 

tion 

2. Detroit's prominence attracted attention to 

Michigan 



CONTENTS xvii 

3. Impulse to improvement of roads 

4. Soldier-settlers 

5. Lewis Cass, governor and Indian agent 

B. Unfavorable reports about Michigan lands 50 

I. Reports of the early surveyors 

1. Connection with military bounty lands 

2. When and where these surveys were made 

3. Probable reasons for character of the reports 

4. Why inexcusable 

5. Relocation of bounty lands 

6. How these reports reached intending settlers 

II. Other reports 

C. Favorable reports 52 

I. Cass's criticism of Tiflin's report 

II. The exploring expedition of 1820 

III. Explorations preceding Cass 

IV. Reports of travelers 

V. Travelers' "Guides" 

VI. Geographies and maps 

VII. Newspapers and magazines 

VIII. Letters from settlers 

IX. Settlers visiting the East 

X. Duration of the prejudice against Michigan 

XI. Ultimate benefit of relocation of bounty lands 

D. Relations with the Indians 57 

I. Cass's problem 

1. Influence of British presents and French 

traders 

2. Policy of the national government 

II. Cass's qualifications 

III. Indian treaties 

1. Treaty of Greenville, 1795 

2. Treaty of Detroit, 1807 

3. Treaty of Saginaw, 1819 

4. Treaty of Chicago, 1821 

5. Treaty of Washington, 1836 

6. Minor treaties 

IV. The Black Hawk War 

1. How connected with Michigan 

2. Effect on settlement 



xviii CONTENTS 

3. Its effects complicated with those of the 
cholera epidemic 
V. Removal of the Indians 

E. The public lands and settlement 62 

I. Importance of the land question; private claims; 

accurate survey 

II. Cass's land policy in relation to settlement 

III. Significance of the rectangular system of survey 

IV. Personal interest of surveyors in settlement 

V. The rate of survey 

VI. Establishment of land offices 

VII. Regulation of land sales 

1. The credit system and its repeal . 

2. Preemption of lands 

VIII. Rate of land sales an index to settlement 

IX. Speculation and banking 

X. The financial crisis of 1837 

F. Improvements in transportation 69 

I. Primitive conditions 

II. Water transportation 

1. The Great Lakes 

a. Passenger traffic on Lake Erie 

b. Lake Michigan and the settlement of 

western Michigan 

2. The Erie Canal 

3. Routes and travel from the East 

a. Typical illustrations 

b. Cost of water transportation 

c. Immigration 

4. Rivers and canals 

III. Land transportation 

1. National military roads 

a. Monroe Road 

b. Fort Gratiot Road 

c. Saginaw Road 

d. Chicago Road 

e. Maumee-Jonesville Road 

f. La Plaissance Bay Road 

g. Grand River Road 

2. Territorial roads 

a. Turnpikes 

b. Railroads 

c. Plank roads 

3. Township roads 



CONTENTS xix 

G. Extension of popular government 82 

I. Early abuses in government 

II. Cass's democratic principles 

III. Obstacles, and how overcome 

IV. Extensions of the elective franchise 

V. The spirit of the East in the early laws 

VI. County government 

1. Extent of popular control 

2. Significance as an index to settlement 

3. Significance of the county seat for settlement 

VII. Township government 

1. Inheritances from New York and New Eng- 

land 

2. A school of democracy for foreigners 

3. Significance as a measure of settlement 

H. Small educational advantages 91 

I. National land grants 

II. Territorial legislation of 1827 

III. The log schoolhouse and the "academy" 

IV. The "Catholepistemiad" 

V. Educational provisions in the state constitution of 

1835 



CHAPTER III 

The Eastern Shore 

A. Environment 95 

I. Soil 

II. Drainage 

III. Water power 

IV. Timber 

B. Canadian-French settlements 96 

I. Position 

II. Relation to streams 

III. Unhealthful environments 

IV. Relation to canoe navigation 

V. Neglect of the Huron river 

VI. Slight extension inland 

VII. Settlement areas 

1. Detroit group 



XX CONTENTS 

2. Clinton River group 

3. St. Clair group 

4. Raisin River group 

VIII. French fanns and farming 

1 . Shape and size of fanns 

2. Compactness of settlement 

3. Fanning 

a. General character 

b. The orchard 

c. "Yankee" opinion 

d. Agricultural implements 

e. Conditions in the small settlements 

f . Conditions in the large settlements 

IX. Characteristics of the Michigan Canadians 

1. Contemporary description 

2. Lack of ambition 

3. Aversion to taxes 

4. Opposition to changes 

5. Gaiety 

6. Sociability 

7. Piety and morality 

8. Refinement among upper classes 

9. Patriotism 

10. Influence of Father Gabriel Richard 

X. Founding of settlements outside of Detroit 

1. On Grosse Isle 

2. On the E corse and the Rouge 

3. On the Raisin River 

4. On the St. Clair 

5. On the Clinton 

6. On Otter and Sandy creeks 

C. American settlement at Detroit 116 

I. Conditions in 1803 

II. Effects of fire of 1805 

III. Effects of War of 1812 

IV. Growth from 1812 to 1818 

V. The new city plan 

VI. Streets 

VII. Roads 

VIII. Frontier character of life in 1818 

1 . Trade 

2. Manufacture 

3. Lake commerce 



CONTENTS 

4. Public utilities 

a. Water-supply 

b. Fire-protection 

c. Menaces to health 

5. Opinion of travelers 

6. Census of 1818 

IX. Effects of land sales and steam navigation 

1 . Immigration of eastern laborers 

2. Embarrassment due to Michigan Can- 

adians 

3. Progress of immigration 

4. Extension of city boundaries 

5. Census of 1823 

X. Growth from 1825 to 1831 

1. Opening of the Erie Canal 

2. Competition with other lake ports 

3. Buildings and stores 

4. Increase of civic consciousness 

5. Census of 1827 

XL Growth from 1831 to 1834 

1. Immigration of 1831 

2. Black Hawk War and cholera epidemic 

in 1832 

3. Sickness of 1834 

4. Census of 1834 

XII. Period of rapid growth, 1835-1837 

1. Congestion of population in 1835 

2. Increases of popiilation in 1835-1837 

3. Stimulus to business 

4. Rise in value of city lots 

5. Relations with the interior 

6. New demand for laborers 

7. Manufactures and commerce 

8. Civic improvements 

a. Sewerage 

b. Water-supply 

c. Fire-protection 

d. Street-lighting and paving 

e. Change in character of buildings 

XIII. Sources of population 

1. New York and New England. 

2. Virginia and Ohio 

3. Negroes 

4. Foreign-bom citizens 

5. French-Canadians 



CONTENTS 

XIV. Education and culture 

1. Prestige of city as capital of Territory 

2. Culture of immigrants from the East 

3. Hospitality 

4. Institutions 

5. Opinion of travelers 

D. Monroe 153 

I. Situation and antecedents 

II. Coming of Americans 

III. Slowness of growth from 1817 to 1825 

IV. Stimulating influences 

V. Contemporary opinion as to prospects 

VI. Rapid growth from 1835 to 1837 

E. "Boom towns" 157 

I. Brest 

II. Gibraltar 

III. Flat Rock 

IV. Brownstown 

V. Wyandotte 

F. Mt. Clemens 157 

I. Compared with Monroe 

II. Founding and growth, 1818-1825 

III. Newspaper reports 

IV. Early industries 

V. Speculation 

VI. Competing villages 

VII. Transportation and trade 

G. St. Clair villages 160 

I. St. Clair 

II. Marine City 

III. Port Huron 

IV. Algonac 

V. Travelers' opinions 

H, Interior settlement 166 

I. St. Clair County 

1. Distribution of population 

2. Influences hindering growth 

3. Land sales, steam navigation and 

speculation 

4. Lumbering and shipbuilding 

II. Macomb County 

1 . Central physiographic influences 

2. First land sales 

3. Rapid settlement, 1830-1837 

4. Centers of population 



CONTENTS xxiii 

III. Monroe County 

1. Compared with St. Clair and Macomb 

2. Slow settlement until 1822 

3. Rapid settlement, 1822-1837 

4. Centers of population 

5. Township organization 

IV. Wayne County 

1 . Compared with Monroe County 

2. Growth of population as measured by 

township organization 

3. Distribution of population in 1837 

I. Comparative growth of counties as shown by the 

censuses 180 

I. Rank of counties in 1820 

II. Relative rank in 1830 

III. Changes in 1830-34 

IV. Ntmibers and distribution of population in 

1837 
J. Sources of population 183 

I. New England 

II. Intermediate sources 

III. Nativity of prominent citizens 

IV. French-Canadians, Germans and Scotch 



CHAPTER IV 

The First Inland Counties 

A. Introduction 186 

I. Effect of relative position upon the date of begin- 

nings 

II. General conditions favoring settlement 

III. Time and place of first settlements 

IV. Observations upon their order of founding 

1. Precedence of settlement 

2. Interval of time between beginnings at north 

and south 

3. Dates compared with those of inland settle- 

ments eastward 

4. Settlements in the eastern part of these 

counties 



xxiv CONTENTS 

B. Explanation of these observations 187 

I. Differences of environment not alone sufficient to 

explain them 

1. Water power and drainage 

2. Timber and openings 

3. Surface and soil 

4. Natural beauty 

II. Sufficient explanation 

1. Nearness of Oakland County to Detroit and 

the consequent priority of its land survey 

2. Personal influence and interest of a United 

States siurveyor working in Oakland 
County 

3. Opening of the first land office at Detroit, 

leading to explorations into the coimtry 
nearest to the city 

4. The enterprise of Detroit men willing to 

risk money to promote a village near 
Detroit 

5. The superior natural advantages of Oaldand 

County in "openings," water power, tim- 
ber, variety of soil and beauty of scenery 

6. The absorption of interest in the lands of 

Oakland County, which were the first to 
be brought actively to attention 

7. The availability of open land in the shore 

section, especially in Macomb County and 
in parts of Wayne 

8. The relatively greater distance of the south- 

em part of the section from the shore, and 
the intervention of dense forest between 
the two sections 

III. Sources of information about southern part of sec- 

tion 

1. French traders at site of Ypsilanti 

2. United States surveyors 

3. Cass expedition of 1820 

4. Fishermen on Huron River 

5. Hunting and exploring parties 

C. Beginnings in Oakland County 199 

I. Influence of Clinton River: Rochester 

II. Influence of Saginaw Trail: Pontiac 



CONTENTS XXV 

D. Beginnings in Washtenaw County . . 201 

I. Influence of Cass expedition, 1820 

II. Influence of Huron River and Indian trails 

1. "French claims" 

2. Woodruff's Grove settlement 

3. Ann Arbor: Territorial Road 

III. Influence of Chicago Road 

1 . Ypsilanti 

2. Saline 

E. Beginnings in Lenawee County 203 

I. Influence of Raisin River 

1 . Tecumseh 

2. Adrian 

3. Clinton 

II. Influence of Chicago Road 

F. Summary 204 

G. How settlers reached this section: difhculties of transporta- 

tion 205 

I. Rivers: attempts at river improvement 

II. Trails: initial road-making 

III. "Openings" 

H. Extension of frontier 2 10 

I. Principal agents determining points from which 

frontier was extended 

1. General direction from which settlers came 

2. "Openings" and fertility of soil 

3. Rivers: Ann Arbor, Rochester 

4. Junction of two streams : Tecumseh, Adrian 

5. Junction of river and trail: Pontiac, Ypsi- 

lanti 

6. Military road: Saline, Clinton 

II. Extension of frontier in Oakland County, to 1824, 

1824-30, 1830-34: determining influences 

III. Extension of the frontier in Washtenaw County, 

1824-30, 1830-34: explanation 

IV. Extension of the frontier in Lenawee County, 

1824-30, 1830-34: explanation 

I. Intensive settlement 217 

I. Rate and amount of increase in rural population 
1. In Oakland County, 1820-30, 1830-34 



xxvi CONTENTS 

a. Areal distribution 

b. Village growth: Pontiac, Auburn, 

Rochester 

c. Interaction of farm and village 

2. In Washtenaw County, 1824-30, 1830-34 

a. Distribution 

b. Villages: Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline, 

Dexter, Manchester 

c. Relation of village growth to rural de- 

velopment 

3. In Lenawee County 

a. Distribution 

b. Villages: Tecumseh, Adrian, Clinton 

J. Character of population 238 

I. Nativity of founders of first settlements 

II. Heterogeneity of sources in any given settlement 

III. Names of villages and townships as evidence 

IV. Foreign elements 

H. Methods of founding colonies in this section 242 

I. Individual initiative of home-seekers: Rochester, 

Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Adrian 

II. Initiative of well-to-do speculators: Dexter, Saline, 

Manchester 

III. Commercial partnership: Tecumseh 

IV. Commercial company: Pontiac 

L. Types of colonies 242 

I. The "sawmill town": Tecumseh, Pontiac 

II. The "farming village": Rochester, Farmington 

III. The "stage station": Ypsilanti 

IV. The "Qviaker colony": Adrian, Farmington 

V. The "social settlement": experiment inBloomfield 

Township in Oakland County 

M. Education and culture 242 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER V 

St. Joseph Valley and Chicago Road 

A. The counties of this section 244 

B. Physical characteristics 244 

I. Surface 

II. Drainage, water power and navigation 

III. Lakes 

IV. Soil 

V. Forest 

VI. Prairies 

C. General survey of settlement 251 

I. Beginnings of settlement 

1. Cass expedition 

2. Indian cessions and reservations 

3. Relations of Indians and settlers 

4. Influences of Carey Indian Mission 

5. Influence of survey of Chicago Road 

6. "Squatters" on the prairie land 

7. Organization of local government 

II. Condition of roads and travel in this section 

1. Chicago Road as an axis of settlement 

2. Taverns 

3. Post offices 

4. Platting of villages 

III. Influence of St. Joseph River 

1. Mills 

2. Transportation 

IV. Checks to immigration from cholera and Black 

Hawk War 

V. Comparative growth of population in this and 

other sections 

D. Early settlement of western counties, 1822-29 252 

I. Effect of western settlement on rate of growth in 

this section 

II. Counties most favored in this period 

III. Influence of Carey Indian Mission 

1 . Founding 



xxviii CONTENTS 

2. Early settlers in the neighborhood 

3. Extension of the frontier from this center 

4. Sources of immigration 

5. Influence on Cass County 

a. Synchronous influences 

b. Sources of population 

c. Rate of early settlement 

6. Influence on St. Joseph County 

a. Slight direct influence 

b. Greater influence of the survey of Chi- 

cago Road 

c. Sources of early immigration 

d. Northward extension of the frontier 

7. Influence on beginnings in Berrien County 

a. Niles 

b. Portage Prairie 

c. Berrien Springs 

d. St. Joseph 

1) Early French occupation 

2) First American settlers 

3) First strong impulse to settlement 

8. Acceleration of settlement in the years 1827- 

1829 

a. Survey of lands into sections 

b. Beginning of land sales 

c. Establishment of western counties 

d. Organization of Cass and St. Joseph 

counties 

e. Organization of township government 

E. Early settlement of eastern counties, 1827-29 268 

I. Hillsdale County 

1. Chief influences 

a. Chicago Road 

b. Prairies 

c. St. Joseph River 

2. First land sales 

3. Influence of these centers of settlement 

II. Branch County 

1. Chief influences similar to those in Hillsdale 

County 

2. Ohio settlement on Bronson Prairie 

3. Retarding influence of the Indians on Cold- 

water Prairie 

4. First settlement on Cocoosh Prairie 



CONTENTS xxix 

F. Conditions of settlement in 1830 270 

I. Comparative population of counties 

II. Distribution of population by townships 

G. Settlement of the section from 1830 to 1832 271 

I. Blending of eastern and southern tides of immigra- 

tion 

II. Evidences of a more vigorous immigration 

III. Cholera epidemic and Black Hawk War 

H. Platting and initial growth of villages in the western coun- 
ties of the section, 1830-34 272 

I. In St. Joseph County 

1. White Pigeon 

2. Centre ville 

3. Mottville 

4. Constantine 

II. In Cass County 

1 . Edwardsburg 

2. Cassopolis 

III. In Berrien County 

1. Niles 

2. Berrien Springs 

3. St. Joseph 

4. Bertrand 

I. Settlement of the eastern counties of the section, 1830-34 . . 278 

I. In Branch County 

1. The central area along the Chicago Road 

a. Branch Village 

b. Coldwater 

2. Deflecting influences 

a. Northern settlements related to Cal- 

houn and Jackson coimties 

b. Southern settlement 

II. In Hillsdale County 

1 . Jonesville and the Chicago Road settlements 

2. Rural settlement in the Bean Creek Valley 

J. Settlement from 1834 to 1837 284 

I. Distribution of rural population at the close 

of the period 

II. Distribution of village population 

1. Hillsdale County 

a. Jonesville 

b. Hillsdale 



XXX CONTENTS 

2. Branch County 

a. Coldwater 

b. Branch 

c. Mason 

d. Union City 

3. St. Joseph County 

a. White Pigeon 

b. Mottville 

c. Constantine 

d. Three Rivers and Lockport 

e. Centre ville 

4. Cass County 

a. Edwardsburg 

b. Cassopolis 

c. Whitman ville 

d. Geneva 

e. Adamsville 

5. Berrien County 

a. Bertrand 

b. Niles 

c. Berrien Springs 

d. St. Joseph 
d. New Buffalo 

f . Forest settlement in the interior 

K. Sources of population 301 

I. American sources 

1. Ohio, Indiana and the Carolinas 

2. "Pennsylvania-Dutch" 

3. "Scotch-Irish" 

4. New York and the New England States 

II. Foreign sources 

1 . English 

2. Canadians 

3. Germans 



CONTENTS 'f'^i 

CHAPTER VI 
Kalamazoo Valley and Territorial Road 

A. Comparison with settlement in St. Joseph Valley 305 

I. Precedence in time 

II. General character 

III. Influence of Indian trails 

IV. Influence of physiographic agents 

B. Waste surface ^^^ 

I. Marsh land 

1. Extent, distribution and enviromiient 

2. Its advantages and disadvantages to settlers 

a. Wild hay 

b. Malaria 

c. Impediment to transportation 

II. Small lakes 

1. Extent, distribution and cmaronment 

2. Its advantages to settlers 

a. Beauty 

b. Healthfulness 

c. Fish 

d. Means of transportation 

3. Why comparatively neglected 



Soils 

I. In the river bottoms 

II. In the prairies 

1. Characteristics of its settlement 

a. Relation to forest land 

b. Marginal settlement 

c. Why preferred to timbered land 

2. Distribution in the section 

3. The Kalamazoo prairies 

a. Extent and distribution 

b. Relation to prairies of Cass and St. 

Joseph counties 

c. Unity of earliest settlement in the two 

sections 

d. Immigration from eastern Michigan 



310 



xxxii CONTENTS 

e. Mingling of these eastern and southern 

currents 

f . Intermediate steps in immigration from 

New England and from states south 

4. The Calhoun prairies 

5. Other prairies of the seetion 

a. In Allegan and Van Burcn counties 

b. In Jackson County 

III. Openings and plains 

1. Extent and distribution 

2. Characteristics 

IV. Heavily timbered lands 

1. Slowness of settlement 

2. Varieties of timber 

3. Lumbering and water power 

D. Centralizing agents: water power, drainage and means of 

communication 321 



II. 



Rivers: general influence 
1. The Kalamazoo 




a. General course 




b. Uniformity of volume 




c. Bottom lands 


2. 
3. 


d. Variety 

e. Transportation 
The St. Joseph 

The Grand 


4. 


The Paw Paw 


5. 


The Black 


6. 


The Raisin and the Huron 


Indian trails 


1. 


The Washtenaw Trail : relation to the Kala- 




mazoo River and the Territorial Road 


2. 


Local trails: relation to roads 


3. 


Concentration at fords : relation to first river 




settlements 




a. Kalamazoo 


4. 


b. Jackson 

c. Saugatuck 

Agreement of Indians and whites on condi- 




tions for primitive settlement 
a. Soil 




b. Fish 




c. Fords 




d. Trade 



CONTENTS XX 

e. Water power 

f. Villages 

5. Influence of the Territorial Road on choice 
of early river sites 

III. The Kalamazoo River: specific influence 

1 . First river settlements 

a. Jackson 

1) Environment 

2) Geographic position 

3) Personal motives of settlement 

b. Kalamazoo 

1) Environment 

2) Experiences and motives of 

founder 

c. Saugatuck 

1) Probable motives of its first set- 
tler 

2. Other river settlements: relative influence of 

Territorial Road and water-power 

a. Otsego 

b. Gun Plains 

c. Allegan 

d. Albion 

e. Marshall 

f. Battle Creek 

3. Early mills 

a. Importance to settlement 

b. Example of slow settlement due to their 

absence 

c. Location of first mills 

IV. The Ten-itorial Road 

1. Rural settlement 

a. Centralizing power of county seats 

b. Influence not separable from that of 

Kalamazoo River 

c. Township organization 

d. Land sales 

e. Appointments of pioneer preacher 

2. Travel 

a. Need of the road 

b. Slowness of improvement 

c. Inconveniences and dangers 

d. Amount of travel 

e. Projected stage line 

f. Condition of road in 1835-37 



xxxiv CONTENTS 

3. Village life 

a. Where best exemplified 

b. Jackson 

c. Kalamazoo 

d. Marshall 

1) Its promoters 

a) Sidney Ketchmn 

b) John D. Pierce 

c) Isaac E. Crary 

2) Ideals 

3) Actual conditions 

e. Other villages 

E . Deflecting influences 350 

I. The prairie settlements 

II. Openings and plains 

III. Grazing lands 

IV. Power sites on tributary streams 

V. Chicago Road 

VI. Rising value and scarcity of good lands untaken 

along Kalamazoo River 

F. Interrelations of settlements 355 

I. Founding 

II. Mills 
II. Mails 

IV. Merchandise and stores 

G. General retarding influences upon settlement 357 

H. Comparative status of settlement in different counties be- 
fore 1835 359 

I. Dates of first settlement 

II. Dates of county organization 

III. Relative poprdations in 1834 

I. Probable local explanations of disparity of settlement. ... 361 

J. Comparative status of settlement in different counties in 

1837 : 362 



CONTENTS XXXV 

CHAPTER VII 

The Saginaw Country 

A. Physical environment 364 

I. Surface and soil 

II. Timber 

III. Water power, drainage and navigation 

IV. Minerals 

B . Early unfavorable reports 367 

I. Influence of Indians and trappers 

II. Abandonment of the military post at Saginaw 

III. Misrepresentations by speculators 

IV. Later prejudices 

C. Counter reports 370 

I. Report by Captain Price 

II. Reports from the Cass Expedition to Saginaw 

III. Journal of the "Sciawassee Exploring Company" 

IV. Reports in eastern newspapers • 

D. Relations of the furtraders to the early settlements 374 

E. The founding of villages 375 

I. On the Saginaw River 

II. On the Flint 

III. On the Shiawassee 

IV. On the Grand River Trail 

F. Transportation 394 

I. The Saginaw Trail and Road 

II. The Grand River Trail and Road 

III. River navigation 

G. Early mills and milhng 398 

H. The trade relations of the settlements 399 

I. Speculation and the panic of 1837 400 

J. Areal distribution of population 400 

I. The formation of counties and townships 

II. The censuses of 1834 and 1837 



xxxvi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VIII 

The Grand River Region 

A. Extent of settlement by 1837 , 407 

B. Physical environment 407 

I. Surface 

II. Soil 

III. Drainage 

IV. Water power 

V. Timber 

VI. Openings and small prairies 

VII. Sites of early trading posts and settlements 

C. Early reports about the region 411 

I. tJnited States surveyors 

II. Missionaries and fur traders 

III. Notices in gazetteers 

IV. Misrepresentation and neglect 

V. Newspaper reports revive interest 

VI. First serious investigations looking to the founding 

of villages and agricultural settlement 

D. Trails and roads 415 

I. Northern Trail and Northern Wagon Road 

II. Grand River Trail and Road 

III. Territorial Road 

IV. Great Lakes and the Grand River 

E. The Rapids of the Grand. 421 

I. Grand Rapids 

1. Indian mission and the traders 

2. New impulse of 1833 

3. Growth from 1835 to 1837 

a. Newspaper accounts 

b. Development of water power and be- 

ginnings of manufacture 

c. Trade 

d. Speculation in village lots and neigh- 

boring lands 

e. Effects of the panic of 1837 



CONTENTS xxxvii 

f. Population in 1837 

g. Early religious and educational institu- 

tions 
II. Settlements outside of Grand Rapids 

1 . Grandville 

2. Ada 

3. Lowell 

F. The Ionia colonies 431 

I. The Dexter colony from Rochester, N. Y., 1833 

a. The founding of Ionia 

b. Early growth of the colony 

II. The new land office and the speculations of 1836-37 

III. Lyons and Portland 

IV. Sources of first settlers 

G. The mouth of the Grand 436 

I. First traders 

II. Activities of 1834-35 

1. W. M. Ferry 

2. Grand Haven Company 

III. The "starving time" 

IV. Status of Grand Haven in 1837 

V. River settlements above Grand Haven 

VI. The speculations of 1836-37 

1. Port Sheldon Company 

2. Land buying along the Grand 

3. Scantiness of settlement away from the river 

VII. Slight beginnings of Muskegon 

VIII. Sources of early settlers 

H. Settlements in heavily timbered land between Ionia and 

Territorial Road 442 

I. Bellevue: openings and water power 

II. Charlotte: prairie 

III. Vermont ville colony 

1. Exceptional characteristics 

2 . " Rules and Regulations of the Union Colony ' ' 

3. Stimulus of moral purpose 

4. Sources of the settlers 

5. Occupations represented 

6. Obstacles to growth 

7. Effects of panic of 1837 

IV. Eaton Rapids: water power and heav}^ timber 

V. River settlements above Eaton Rapids 



xxxviii CONTENTS 

VI. Distribution of population in Eaton County in 1837 

VII. Sources of early settlers 

I. Settlements between Grand Rapids and the Territorial 

Road 451 

I. Comparative scantiness of settlement 

II. Distribution of settlement in 1837 

III. Beginnings of settlement in 1836 

1. The hostelry of "Yankee Lewis" 

2. "The Barry County Seat Purchase," and the 

Hastings Company 

3. Early growth of Hastings, and relations with 

Marshall and Kalamazoo 

J. Settlements on the Lookingglass and Maple rivers 460 

I. Retarding influences 

1. Extensive speculation 

2. Active hostility of trappers and traders 

II. Speculations at the junction of the Lookingglass 

and the Prairie Rivers; Dewitt 

III. Wacousta and other water power settlements on 

the Lookingglass 

IV. The "Rochester Colony" at Duplain on the Maple 

River 

1. Comparisons with the Ionia and Vermont- 

ville colonies 

2. Articles of association 

3. Influences inducing settlement 

V. Maple Rapids 

VI. German Catholics in Westphalia Township 



CHAPTER IX 

Sources and Character of Population 

A. Nature and importance of the subject 468 

B. Washtenaw County as typical of most of southern Michi- 

gan " 468 

C. Proportion of population from various sources based upon 

land patents to original purchasers 469 



CONTENTS xxxix 

D. Proportions of population from various sources based upon 

birthplaces of settlers 475 

E. Comparisons and results 476 

F. Proportion of population based on representative citizen- 

ship 478 

G. Qualities and ideals of the early settlers 482 

I. Exaltation of the individual 

II. Hardiness 

III. Hopefulness 

IV. Self-confidence and self-assertiveness 

V. Originality and versatility 

VI. Initiative and leadership 

VIII. Domestic virtues 

IX. Sense of social responsibility 

X. Largeness of outlook 

XI. Eastern traditions in society; education and reli- 

gion 



CHAPTER X 

Conclusion 

A. Preliminaries to American settlement in Michigan 489 

I. Causes of emigration from the East 

II. Michigan's invitation to settlers 

III. Government aids to settlement 

IV. Relations with the French habitans 
y. Checks and stimuli to settlement 

B. Chief causes influencing the rate of settlement 493 

I. Michigan's invitation to settlers 

1 . Surface 

2. Soil 

3. Water power and drainage 

4. Springs 

5. Variety and relative density of timber 

6. Openings, plains and prairies 

7. Natural aids to communication and trans- 

portation 



xl CONTENTS 

II. Checks and stimuli other than physical environ- 
ment 

1 . Extinction of Indian titles 

2. Rate at which lands came upon the market 

3. Laws regulating land sales 

4. The operations of speculators 

5. The scarcity of a medium of exchange : banks 

6. Early reports about Michigan lands and cli- 

mate 

7. Improvements in roads and means of trans- 

portation 

8. Malarious diseases and the cholera epi- 

mics 

9. The Black Hawk War 

10. Character of the population 

C. The population 496 

I. Sources 

1. The French hahitans 

2. Settlers from the East and South 

3. The English, Irish and Scotch 

4. The Germans 

II. Chief agents determining the sources of this popula- 

tion 

1. Position of the Territory 

2. Its greater accessibility for certain elements 

3. Its economic appeal 

4. The economic pressure at home and abroad 

5. The southern barrier of competing lands in 

Ohio, Indiana and Illinois 

III. Characteristics of the several elements 

1. French hospitality and conservatism 

2. Energy and enterprise of settlers from East- 

em states 

3. General high moral tone 

4. Absence of eccentric elements 

5. The Indians as an aid and a hindrance 

D. The process of settlement 498 

I. Motives influencing particular elements of the 
population in their choice of location 

1. Ease of communication, defence and trade 

2. Race affiliation 

3. Influence of centers of population 



CONTENTS xli 

4. Environment similar to that of the old home 

5. Occupation 

II. General location of settlers from different sources 

where strikingly preponderant 

III. Chief agents influencing distribution of population 

E. The rate, distribution and amount of arcal settlement .... 499 

I. Illustrated by the organization of counties 

1 . Comparison of counties east and west of the 

dividing ridge 

2. The shore counties vs. the first inland coun- 

ties 

3. The Chicago Road vs. the Territorial Road 

4. The Grand and Saginaw Valleys 

5. The county leading in population 

6. The county leading in rural population 

7. The leading county on the Chicago Road 

8. The leading county on the Territorial Road 

9. The most backward counties 

II. Illustrated by population for 1834 

F. The centralization of population 503 

I. The Territorial capital 

II. Counties and villages 

III. Incorporated villages 

IV. Other villages platted 

G. Individuality of centers of population 503 

H. Economic classes 504 



PLATES 



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OAKLAND COUNTY 
1827 1833 



Pontiac 


Oak 


and 








Bloom 


Field 


Troy 


Farmington 









Oakland 


Pontia c 






Farmingl-on 


West 

Bloomfield 


Bloom 
_Field 


Troy 




South- 
field 



1835 



1837 



Groveland 




Oakland 


«- 


- Pon 

1 / 


tiac 


Orion 


1 


High 


I 
land 


Waterford 


Pontiac 


* 
Avon 


Milford 


Commerce 


West 

Bloom- 

field 


Bloom- 
Field 


Troy 


Lyon 


Farmmgton 


South- 
field 



Groveland 
664 


Brandon 
263 


Oxford 
384 


Addison 

343 

\ 1 


Rose 
202 


Pdinsvllle 
403 


Indepen 
dence 
668 


"Orion 
593 


Oakland 
803 


Highland 
440 


White 
Lake 
363 


Water- 
Ford 
828 


Pontiac 
1700 


Avon 
1289 


Milford 
667 


Commerce 
747 


West 

Bloomfield 
1004 


Bloomfield 
1485 


Troy 
1439 


Lyon 
1051 


Novi 
1335 


Farm in g- 
1724 


South- 
field 
956 


Royal 
Oak 
825 



XlTii 



WASHTENAW COUNTY 



1827 



1832 











Dexter 


Ypsilanti 




Ann f> 


rbor 




1834- 



Oexter 



-4- 

Sylvan 



-i— 

Sharon 



Lima 



Freedom 



Bridgewater 



V/ebster 



bcio 



Lodi 



Saline 



Norlhficid 



Ann 
Arbor 



Pitt 



York- 



Salem 



Superior 



Ypsilar.ti 



1837 



Lyndon 
361 


Dexter 
595 


Webster 
832 


Mofthfieid 
793 


Salem 
1354 


Sylvan 
480 


Lima 
895 


Scio 

1442 


AnnArbor 
2^44 


Superior 
1378 


Sharon 
782 


Freed cm 
795 


Lodi 
1063 


Pitt 
1208 


Ypsilanti 
2280 


Manchester 
605 *^ 


Bridgewater 
"923 


Saline 
1130 


York 
1197 


Augusta 
559 



Xlviii 



1827 



Tecumseh 



Logan 



Blissfield 



LENAWEE COUNTY 



1833 



Franklin 

f- 



Tecumseh 



Logan 



Blissfield 



1835 



Franklin 


Tecumseh 


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1837 



Woodstock 
541 


Cambridge 
523 


Franklin 
989 


Tecumseh 
2464 


2 

IT tH 

— n 
o 

3 


Rollin 
508 


Rome 
826 


Logan 
1962 


Raisin 
1076 


Hudson 
? 


Dover 
680 


Lenawte 
1151 


Palmyra 
898 




Medina 
420- 


Seneca 
-431' 


Fairfield 
203 


"i — 

Oqden 

198 













xlix 



BERRIEN COUNTY 

4834 




1837 







J ?aw?a^ 






Benton 


Bain- 
bridge 
99 




/ Royalton 
/ 175 


/ 


Oronoko 
248 


Berrien 
496 


/New 
BuFFalo 


Weesaw 

116 *- 


Buchanate Niles 
17? <:^ 1497 


199 


Berlrand 
~ 1262 



1834 




1837 



Sherwood 
217- 


Union 
-260 


Girard 
448 


> 


Bronson 
535 


Batavia 
357 

1 


Coldwater 
960 

1 


Quincy 
569 


o 
o 


I 

Elizabeth 

177 


i 

Ovid 
209 


o 

H 


Gilead 
->I84 





1835 



Allen 


Fayette 


Moscow 


Wheat- 
land 



1837 



Litchfield 
314 



Allen 
353 



Reading 
277 



Scipio 
469 



Fayelle 
685 



Moscow 
496 



Somerset 
441 



Adams 
279 



Wheatland 
729 



Florida 
156 



Pittsford 
550 



HILLSDALE COUNTY 











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GENESEE COUNTY 



1837 



Vienna 
107 



Flint 
1288 



Mundy 
234 



Argentine 
434- 



Grand 
•691^ 



Blanc 



1834 



1837 





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Iv 



LIVINGSTON COUNTY 

35 




Hovvel 
442 



Unadilla 
642 



1837 



Marion 
202 



Putnam 
367 



DeerField 
369 



Byron 
317 



Genoa 
361 



Hamburg 
490 



HarHand 
404 



Green 
Oak 
1435 



1835 











Saginaw 
920 











SAGINAW COUNTY 



1837 



Owosso 



Shiawassee 



Vernon 



Burns 



^HJAWASSEE COUNTY 



Ivi 



LeNawee 




TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1827 

Previous to the general organization of townships in 1827 {Territorial Laws, II, 479, 
587), townships were "set off" by proclamation of Governor Cass in Monroe County in 
1817 (Territorial Laws. I, 323), and in Wayne County in 1818 (Territorial Laws, II, 793). 
As organized in 1827, Pontiae Township in Oakland County included also territory now 
in Shiawassee, Saginaw and Lapeer counties (Territorial Laws, II, 477). Dexter Town- 
ship, in Washtenaw County, included also a large area westward, until the organization 
of townships in Jackson County (Territorial Laws, II, 479). 



Ivii 




TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1829, DATA: 

Berrien County, Territorial Laws, II, 786. 

Cass County, Ibid., II, 786. Penn township included the county of Van Buren and all 
that territory lying north which, with Van Buren, was attached to Cass 
County for judicial purposes. 
Hillsdale County, Ibid., II, 787. 
Monroe County, Ibid., II, 720. The name of "Flumen" township was changed to 

Summerfield the same year {Territorial Laws, II, 763). 
St. Joseph County, Ibid., II, 786-787. 
Washtenaw County, Ibid., II, 712. 

Wayne County, Ibid., II, 737. A slight change in the boundary between Hamtramclv 
and Springwells affecting the "Ten Thousand Acre Tract" was made 
in 1831 {Ibid., Ill, 900). 



Iviii 




TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1830. DATA: 

Jackson County, Territorial Laws, III, 839 

Kalamazoo County, Ibid., Ill, 839, 840 

Monroe County, Ibid., Ill, 843. Apparently there was some difficulty with this Act, 

which was'conflrmed by an Act of March 4, 1831 (T. L. Ill, 907). 
Oakland County, Ihid., Ill, 818, 833 
Saginaw County, Ibid., Ill, 818. This township was made co-extensive with the 

county as laid out Sept. 10, 1822 (T. L., I. 334). The area was 

dimimshed March 2, 1831, by excluding the two northwest townships 

(T. L., Ill, 872) 
St. Joseph County, Ibid., Ill, 826 



lix 




TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED IN 1832 

Berrien County, Territorial Laws, III, 920. The middle township. Berrien, contained 
a tier of surveyed towns plus two tiers of sections above. The error 
in the Act organizing the northern town.ship, St. Joseph, is corrected in 
Ibid., Ill, 1249 

Branch County, Ibid., Ill, 949. The name of the western town.ship, Prairie River, was 
changed to "Green" in 1833 {Ibid,, III, 1260) 

Calhoun County. Ibid., Ill, 972 

Jackson County, Ibid., Ill, 948, 957. In 1831 the name of the middle town.ship, 
Jacksonopolis, was changed to "Jacksonburg" {Ibid., Ill, 866). 

Kalamazoo County, Ibid., Ill, 972 

Macomb County, Ibid., Ill, 926 

Monroe County, Ibid., Ill, 921. It was apparently the intention of the framers of this 
Act to include in London Township at the north the small strip which 
cuts it in two — a tier of sections in T.5S, R8E. See Ibi<l., Ill, 1276 

Washtenaw County, Ibid., Ill, 925, 928 



Ix 




The outlines of the Lower Peninsula and of thedcounty boundaries are taken from The 
Tourists Pocket Map of Michigan (Phila. 1835), and upon this map are projected the 
township boundaries as they were in 1835. The townships of 1835, without exception 
were made not later than March, and hence do not represent any considerable immigra^ 
tion beyond 1834. Approximately therefore the map may be taken to represent the 
relative distribution of population at the end of 1834, with allowance particularly for in- 
crease in Jackson and St. Joseph counties. 
Data for township organization in 1835: 

Berrien County, Territorial Laws, III, 1368 

Calhoun County, Ihid., Ill, 1368 

Cass County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 

Eaton County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 

Hillsdale County, Ibid., Ill, 1367 

Lenawee County, Ibid., Ill, 1367 

Livingston County, Ibid.. Ill, 1368, 1404. The southwestern township, TTnadilla, tn- 
^ ^, eluded one government township in Washtenaw County 

Macomb County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 

Oakland County, Ibid., Ill, 1368, 1369, 1404, 1420 

St. Clair County, Ibid., Ill, 1368 

Van Buren County, Ibid., Ill, 1403 

Washtenaw County, Ibid., Ill, 1404 

Wayne County, Ibid., Ill, 13.59, 1368 



Ixi 




CENSUS OF ORGANIZED TOWNSHIPS OF SOUTHERN MICHIGAN WHEN THE 
STATE WAS ADMITTED TO THE UNION (1S37) 



Ixii 



51 Joseph R,v,r 




«'95^4n C-, 



tlf(l.,l„,itoo Co) 

636 



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Union 


Cirard 


Buller 


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fironw 


Balhtl 


Ovid 


*JIJ" 


Noble 


Cil«i) 


Totrifi':. 1 



Showing the influence of Chicago road on seltlemenl in Branch Co. 



Key lo tov^nships 

The outline and drainage shown on this map are taken from Tackabury's Atlas o/ 
Michigan, p. 112. The courses of roads and trails are taken from CoUin'.s History nf 
Branch County, as are also the data for settlement. It will be observed that nearly all 
settlements which were made previous to 183.5 were made'on or very near the Chicago 
Road. The exceptions in the north illustrate Ihe influence'of Dry and Cocoosh prairies, 
and in the south that of the oak openings. Where obtainable, the sources of the settlers 
are given. 



Iziii 




SMALL PRAIRIES IN SOUTHWESTERN MICHIGAN 

Cass County. 

1. Beardsley's prairie — Edwardsburg (Hist. Cass County, 4o, 120) 

2. Baldwin's prairie — Union (ibid., 125) 

3. Pokagon prairie— Pokagon (Ibid., 40) 

4. La Grange prairie — La Grange (Ibid., 46) 

5. Little Prairie Ronde — (Ibid., 51) 
St. Joseph County. 

6. Sturgis prairie — Sturgis (Hist. St. Joseph County) 

7. White Pigeon prairie— White Pigeon (Ibid., 61; M. H. C, XVIII, 223) 

8. Xottawa prairie (M. H. C, VI, 424) 
Kalamazoo County. 

9. Big Prairie Ronde— Schoolcraft (M. H. C, III, 360) 

10. Gourd-neck prairie — Vicksburg. 

11. Genesee prairie (M. H. C. XVIII. 598) 

12. Grand prairie (M. H. C, XVIII, 596; Hist. Kal. Co., 407) 

13. Gull prairie (M. H. C, I, 207) 

14. Toland's prairie (M. H. C, V, 359, 360; II. 159; Hist. Kal. Co., 351) 

15. Climax prairie (Hist. Kal. Co., 324-5) 

16. Dry prairie 
Calhoun County. 

17. Goguac prairie (M. H. C. Ill, 347; Hist. Cal. Co., 80) 

18. Drv prairie (M. H. C.,ll, 209; Hist. Cal. Co., 116) 

19. Cook'.s prairie (Hist. Cal. Co., 134) 

Berrien County. * 

20. Portage prairie (Hist. Berrien Co., 208) 

21. Wolf's prairie (Ibid., 198) 
Brancli County. 

22. Broiison's prairie (M. H. C, VI, 217; XVIII, 60<.)) 

23. Cocoosh prairie (M. H. C, VI, 219; Hist. Branch County, 74) 

24. Coldwater prairie (Hist. Branch Comity, 26) 



Ixiv 




■ Josep' 



INDIAN LAND CESSIONS, 1795-1837 
See Appendix for description of cessions: 



I— (1795), p. 520 
II— (1807), p. 520 
III— (1819), p. 522 
IV— (1821), p. 524 
V— (1836), p. 527 

2.— (1817), p. 522; (1827), p. 525 

3.— (1827), p. 525 

4.— (1827), p. 525 

5.— (1836), p. 529 

6.— (1836), p. 529 

7.— (1836), p. 529 

8.— (1836), p. 529 

9.— (1809), p. 521; (1818), p. 522 
10.— (1809), p. 521; (1818), p. 522 
11.— p. 523 
12.— p. 523 
13.— p. 523 
14.— p. 523 
15.— p. 523 
16.— p. 623 



17.- 
18.- 
19. 
20. 
21.- 
22. 
23.- 
24. 
25.- 
26. 



28.- 
29.- 
30.- 
31. 
32.- 
34.- 
35.- 
36." 



-p. 523 

-p. 523 

-p. 523 

-p. 523 

-p. 523 

-p. 524 

-p. 524 

-p. 524 

-p. 524 

-(1821), p. 525, 526 

-(1821), p. 525; (1828). p. 527; (1833), 

p. 527 
-(1821), p. 526 
-(1821), p. 526 

-(1827), p. 526; (1833), p. 527 
-(1828), p. 526 

-(1832), p. 526; (1833), p. 527 
-(1836), p. 528 
-(1836), p. 528 
-(1817), p. 521 



Ixv 




TRANS-TERRITORIAL ROUTES OF TRAVEL 

The solid lines indicate the stage routes, probably of 1834, as mapped in The Tourist's 
Pocket Map (Phila., 1835). Deviations from the roads as the roads appear to have 
been authorized by statutes, or as they were actually surveyed, are marked by dotted 
lines. At intervals the first settlements are indicated. 

The line farthest south shows the Chicago Road, authorized in 1825 (Stat, at Large, 
IV, 135). As surveyed, it did not pass through Tecumseh (See plate cxxxviii in the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, ISth ami. report, pt. 2). The settlements given are 
those first made along its route. 

The middle line shows the stage route through the Kalamazoo Valley, deviating in 
its western course from the route apparently intended for the Territorial Road authorized 
in 1829 {Territorial Latvs. II, 744). 

The northern line shows the Grand River stage route. According to statute the Grand 
River Road, authorized in 1832 {Stat, at Large, IV, 560) was to be surveyed througii 
"Sciawasee." The Ionia colony seems to have used a route that far north in 1833 
(M. H. C, XXVIII, 145) apparently the one shown. 



Ixvi 




DETROIT IN 1796 

(Burton's Building of Detriot, 21) 

This wood cut was published in the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune for Sept. 11, 
1871 The sketch from which it was made is said to have been originally drafted from 
"an old map of the city" by Thomas Smith, a Detroit surveyor, and engraved for Ralph 
Smith, a real estate cfealer of Detroit. The original appears to have been lost. See 
pp. 120-123. 



Ixvil 




GOVERNOR AND JUDGES PLAN OF DETROIT, 1830 

(Burton's Building of Detroit, 31) 

This map was drafted by.JoUn Mullett and engTavediby J. O. Lewis of Detroit. An original 
copy is in tlie Detroit Public Library. See p. 136. 



Ixviii 




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Ixix 




IM. 




SEAL OF DETROIT 
{Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 337) 



Ixxi 




SEAL OF NORTH WEST TERRITORY 
(Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 323) 



Ixxii 




GREAT SEAL OF THE TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN 
{Mich. Hist. Colls.. XXX, 326) 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 
OF MICHIGAN 



CHAPTER I 

PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 

nnHE close relation between history and geography 
can hardly be better stated than in the words of a 
well-known writer, that "all historical problems ought 
to be studied geographically and all geographic prob- 
lems must be studied historically."^ In an account 
of the settlement of Michigan, therefore, some atten- 
tion must be given to those geographic and geologic 
forces by which the process has been partially condi- 
tioned. 

In geographic location, the most important single 
geographic condition, ^ Michigan is specially favored. 
On the south the lower peninsula reaches to latitude 
4r69', on the east to longitude 82°40' -,' it is therefore a 
little southeast of the geographic center of the con- 
tinent and within range of glaciation; to this is due 

1. Semiple,, Infiuences of Geographic Environment, 11. 

2. mi., im. 

3. Wjalliiag,, Atlas of Michigan (Detroit, 1873), cited infra as 
Taekabury's Atlas. The latitude of Detroit is about 
(the iiQatne as that of Albany and Boston. 



2 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

very largely its topography, drainage and soil. Its 
latitude favors a climate somewhat like that of New 
York and New England, but so modified by the Great 
Lakes as to present some striking differences. Posi- 
tion, moreover, has been a factor in determining the 
fauna and flora. The population and institutions of 
Michigan would have been other than they are had 
the land been differently situated. Midway on the 
northern boundary of the United States, Michigan was 
easily reached from Canada, New York and New Eng- 
land, and on the south from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky 
and Tennessee. The tendency of population in the 
United States to move westward along parallels of 
latitude, early strengthened in this region by Lake 
Erie and later by the Erie Canal, conspired to trans- 
plant to Michigan the traditions, institutions and ideals 
of New York and New England." Michigan's situa- 
tion within the arms of great fresh-water seas aided 
settlement by facilitating transportation and laying the 
foundations of the fishing industry, of ship building and 
of lake commerce. 

The effect of Michigan's position upon its climate is 
modified by the Great Lakes through the agency of the 
prevailing westerly winds, which equalize the tempera- 
ture and provide an amount of rain and snow that 
help to give variety to the fauna and flora, to lengthen 
the growing period for vegetation, and to protect the 
tenderer flora from the extremes of heat and cold. The 
resulting healthfulness, with respect to those diseases 

4. An interesting result in institutional life is the Michigan 
town-meeting, which has the powers of the New Eng- 
land town-meeting, but the organization of the New 
York county board. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 3 

which accompany extremes of temperature, has been 
of much consequence to settlement. It was pointed 
out by Alexander Winchell that these characteristics of 
southern Michigan climate were the distinctive features 
of superiority possessed by Michigan in comparison 
with her neighbors. ^ 

The relation of Lake Michigan and the "westerly 
winds to this climate is easily understood. The lake 
contains about 3,400 cubic miles of water, extending 
along the entire western side of the lower peninsula, 
with an average width of about sixty miles and 
a maximum depth of about a thousand feet. This 
great volume of water becomes a reservoir of 
heat comparatively constant in amount, since the 
water, not being as good a conductor of heat as the 
land, acquires its warmth slowly and slowly gives it 
forth. The air over the peninsula is made compara- 
tively uniform in temperature through the medium of 
evaporation into the westerly winds which blow over 
the lake in all seasons modifying their temperature 
from its waters. 

How great is this influence may be seen from a com- 
parative statement.^ Milwaukee and Grand Haven 
have approximately the same latitude: on November 
18, 1880, when the temperature was 5 degrees Fahr. 

5. Tenth Annual Report of the State Horticultural Soc. of Mich- 

igan (1880), 155. 

6. The modifying effect of the Great Lakes is discussed by 

C. F. Schneider in a report on Surface Geology and Agri- 
cultural Conditions of the SotWhern Peninsula of Michigan 
made by Frank Leverett, Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, 
Publication 9, Geological Series 7 (1912), 28-32. Two 
plates (pp. 30, 31) show January and July mean tem- 
peratures from 1886 to 1911. 



4 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

above freezing at Milwaukee it was 18 degrees at 
Grand Haven on the Michigan shore. ^ It was found 
that extreme cold at Grand Haven for a series of win- 
ters was fourteen degrees less than at Milwaukee. "^ In 
the number of days of growing weather, a factor very 
significant for the tenderer vegetation, Grand Haven 
has been found to gain over Milwaukee thirteen days 
in spring and five in autumn, a condition that is chiefly 
responsible for the Michigan fruit belt.^ The entire 
western shore of the peninsula shares in varying de- 
gree this comparative mildness of temperature and 
freedom from early frosts for a distance of from five 
to ten miles inland. On May 16, 1868, a frost which 
was destructive in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio did no 
damage in the Michigan fruit belt as far north as 
Grand Traverse Bay.^° Extreme winter weather on 
the southern shore of the lake at New Buffalo, Berrien 
County, averages about twelve degrees higher than a 

7. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 158. 

8. Ihid., 163. 

9. Ihid., 161. See Leverett, op. cit., 39-41, for plates giving 

the average date of the last killing-frost in spring and the 
first killing-frost in autumn for a series of years, also the 
average length of the crop-growing season. The Detroit 
Gazette, March 27, 1818, comments on the very cold 
summer of 1816 and resultant destruction of crops; kill- 
ing-frosts are said to have occurred every month during 
the summer. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 358. The re- 
lation of the climate and soil of the western shore to fruit 
growing is well considered in the History of Berrien and 
Van Biiren Counties, 118-126, with references. 
10. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep., (ISSO), 160. The Detroit 
Free Press, in an editorial of May 6, 1836, directed the 
attention of immigrants to the northern part of the State, 
affirming that the climate was not colder at Mackinac 
than in New York. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 5 

little way around the shore at Chicago." These con- 
ditions are illustrated by the isotherms of extreme 
minimum and extreme maximimi temperatures, which 
run almost north and south along nearly the whole 
western shore of the peninsula.^- 

These contrasts hold, though to a less marked de- 
gree, for the interior of the peninsula. A series of 
records taken when the average July temperature was 
68.8 degrees Fahr. at Grand Haven shows the ther- 
mometer averaging 72 degrees for Grand Rapids and 
72.3 degrees for Ionia. ^^ The eastern shores of Michi- 
gan were influenced in a similar manner.^' Flora 
native to Ohio and central Illinois are found liberally 
distributed over the southern half of the peninsula. ^^ 
It was Winchell's judgment that the seasonal tempera- 
tures of Michigan, if carefully regarded, would permit 
its people to raise all of the products suited to the 
climate of Kentucky, Missouri and Northern Texas. ^^ 

11. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep., (1880), 163. 

12. Tackabury's Atlas, 46. 

13. vSee Mich. Geological Survey Rep., (1901), 83-84, foraverage 

temperatures by months for west-central Michigan be- 
tween the latitudes of White Cloud and Allegan. 

14. See charts of seasonal isotherms of Michigan in Tacka- 

bury's Atlas, 45-46, and in the sixth annual report of the 
State Board of Health (1878), and in the Sixth Annual 
Report of the State Board of Health (1878), 194, 197. 
Mich. Geological Rep. (1900), Part I, 101-105, gives de- 
tailed climatic data for Monroe County. In "The Cli- 
mate of Detroit" (Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 367-383) Bela 
Hubbard gives an excellent description of climatic condi- 
tions in southern Michigan, and compares them with 
those of New York and New England. 

15. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 429. 

16. Ibid., 163. See Winchell, Sparks from a Geologist's Ham- 

mer, 200-233, for general climatic conditions in the region 
of the Great Lakes; also Mark S. W. Jefferson, Geography 
of Michigan, 29-39. 



6 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Among the additional influences affecting Michigan's 
cHmate are topography, rainfall and the forests. The 
undulating surface, presenting slightly unequal eleva- 
tions, operates to prevent frosts by keeping the air in 
motion on hillsides. A difference of a hundred feet in 
elevation may make a difference on a clear cold night 
of many degrees in temperature. ^^ If this had been 
understood by the early settlers of Michigan it would 
have led themi to choose the hillsides for their orchards 
instead of the lower level lands, and would have saved 
them many a crop of fruit. Evaporation from the sur- 
face of interior lakes and streams has tended to moder- 
ate temperature, and the forests have affected the sup- 
ply of moisture. The average precipitation in Michi- 
gan, including both rain and snow, is about thirty 
inches;''^ less snow than falls in the same latitude of 
New York and New England but more rainfall, owing 
to the shorter winter and longer summer.'^ 

These are climatic conditions that favor health. 
Michigan's average mean annual temperature of 46 
degrees Fahr. falls within the zone of greatest health, 
which ranges from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. The 
moderate lake winds, tempering the winters, ^° are 

1 7 . Resources of Michigan ( 1 893) , 42 . 

18. Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 429. 

19. vSee for winter, summer and annual precipitation, Tacka- 

bury's Atlas, 49; Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 83-84; 
Mich. State Board of Health Rep. (1878), 194; Schneider, 
in Michigan Geological and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. 
Series 7, pp. 35, 38, 42, 43, 47. 

20. There have been, of course, many exceptions to the general 

moderation of winter and summer. One exceedingly cold 
winter, with deep snows, occurred in 1842-43, when there 
was much suffering; roads were impassable, stock was 
lost, and game perished. History of Berrien and Van 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 7 

unfavorable to all diseases of the lungs and mu- 
cous linings of throat and nose; while the same 
agencies, cooling the summer's heat, are unfa- 
vorable to all diseases common to high tempera- 
tures. The configuration of the surface favored 
the health of settlers, by insuring a complete system 
of lively streams flowing to the Great Lakes. Good 
drainage, combined with porous drift formations, in- 
sured an abundance of pure drinking water in numer- 
ous springs and wells. Michigan's pine forests, pro- 
ducing ozone and favoring greater purity of air by 
decomposing the products of decay, were early re- 
garded as "the western haven for consumptives," ^^ 
Blois says in his Gazetteer (1838), that Michigan was 
reported by immigrants to be healthier than central 
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, -^ and adduces evidence from 
animals slaughtered for the Detroit market to show 
that animal life in Michigan was less subject to liver 
complaints than in Ohio by chances of seven to one.^^ 
He found no evidence of an original case of consump- 
tion among the white settlers of Michigan, but many 
instances of relief obtained by immigrants. ^^ 

21. A. C. McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, 

(Washington, 1891), \2\Mich. State Board of Health Rep. 
(1878), 208. 

22. Blois, Gazetteer of Michigan, (New York, 1838), 126. 

23. Ibid., 127. 

24. Ibid., 126. The United States statistics of 1870, however, 

show about the same per cent of pulmonary consumption 

Bviren Counties (Phila., 1880), 345; Mich. Joint Docu- 
ments (1844), No. 52, p. 6. Curiously enough, that 
severe winter was preceded by three winters whose mild- 
ness is said to have caused much favorable comment 
when comparing weather conditions in Michigan with 
those in New England. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXI, 211. 



8 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Yet in the days of early settlement, the idea was 
prevalent in the East that Michigan's climate was not 
healthful.-^ This idea was probably due, partly, to 
the tradition that the interior of Michigan was very 
swampy; but it was due more largely to reports of the 
actual sickness among the early settlers from malarial 
diseases. The pioneers themselves explained the "fever 
and ague" as consequent upon the natural conditions 
of pioneering. 26 According to their theory, the plow- 
ing of the land, which turned up decayed vegetation 
to the direct rays of the sun poisoned the air, and they 
noted that up to a certain point "fever and ague" 
spread in proportion as settlement advanced. On the 
other hand, as the whole of a large area became cleared 
up the disease tended to disappear. The disease was 
more often annoying than fatal, attacking settlers in 
the season when they most needed to be well. It was 
observed to come on with the spring plowing and to 
last until the first frost in the fall, and there were few 
who were not troubled with "fever and ague" at some 
time during that period. In 1840 in the township of 
Commerce, one of the best settled townships in Oak- 
land County, "the various dwellings within the bounds 
of the afflicted region were one vast series of hospi- 
tals"" — the white population of the county was then 

25. Ibid., 125. 

26. See end of this chapter for notice of the mosquito as a car- 

rier of disease. 

27. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 427. 

in Michigan as in central Ohio, southern New York, 
southern Vermont, western Massachusetts and Connec- 
ticut, Maryland, eastern Virginia and northern Indiana, 
which caused between fourteen and twenty per cent of 
all deaths in Michigan. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 9 

23,590, and this township, then of its present size, had 
nearly a thousand people. ^^ Weight seemed to be 
given to this pioneer theory by the fact that the good 
natural drainage of the county favored the rapid de- 
crease of the disease as the county grew older and as 
drainage came to receive more attention from public 
law. 

Hoffman, a traveler visiting Michigan in 1833 from 
New York, expresses this theory. He regarded it as 
a wonder that a majority of the settlers should escape 
with their lives. He deplored the fact that the anxiety 
of new settlers to have a crop the first year should in- 
duce them to plow up in June a soil "reeking with 
vegetable decomposition," and allow it "to steam up 
for months under their very nostrils." He mentions 
others settling near marshes for the sake of the wild 
hay and drinking the water from the marsh streams or 
from wells into which marsh-water percolated. A law 
of the Territory forbade the flooding of green timber 
when constructing mill ponds, because it was held so 
pernicious to health as to affect the value of property 
near the pond.^^ Hoffman observes that settlers re- 
peatedly violated this law in their anxiety to have 
mills at once. 

The position, climate and local environment of Mich- 
igan influenced vitally the extent, variety and distri- 
bution of the forests, fruits, grasses and wild animals 

28. Michigan Territorial Laws, III, 1275; U. S. Census (1840), 

445. 

29. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, 1, 193. For material bear- 

ing on the early theory of malarious diseases, see Mich. 
State Board of Health Rep. (1878), 209. The law re- 
ferred to is found in Territorial Laws, II, 690. 



10 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

useful to the settlers. These were results closely 
bound up also with topography, drainage and soil; to 
present them intelligibly involves a reference to at 
least the larger aspects of the formation and structure 
of the peninsula. In Michigan's geological history the 
three great facts are the deposition of the pre-pleisto- 
cene rocks in the preglacial seas, the erosion of these 
and covering with the glacial drift of rock and soil, 
and the subsequent erosion, weathering and mixture of 
these materials with decayed vegetation. The bed- 
rocks have their most obvious significance for settle- 
ment in their arrangement and elevation; they govern 
the distribution of minerals throughout the peninsula 
and materially affect its topography and soil. 

The arrangement of the bedrocks of the southern 
peninsula is simple. They have been often compared 
to a series of basins lying one within the other, succes- 
sively shallower towards the one at the center. •'''' At 
the center of the peninsula lie the "fossil swamp- 
lands" of the coal basin, covering nearly a fifth of its 
area;'' and circling about this lie the rims of other 
basins varying in width and cropping out in places 
through the overlying soil.'- In most of the peninsula 
these rocks average in elevation not more than two 
hundred feet above the level of the surrounding lakes, 
reaching their highest elevation in the southern part 

30. See the geological map of the lower peninsula in Mich. Geol. 

Survey. Rep., Ill, Part I, and in Tackabury's Atlas, 
38-39. See for discussion also the fourth report of the 
State Geologist in Senate Document (1841), No. 16, 137. 

31. Mich. Geol. Survey, Rep., VIII, 234. 

32. For rock contours, see plate II, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. 

Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7, opposite p. 18. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 11 

of the peninsula at the northern and southern ex- 
tremities of the southeastern divide, in the counties 
of Oakland and Hillsdale. ^^ 

Their minerals are various and widely distributed.^* 
Those most important for early settlement were salt 
and materials for buildings and roads. The use of 
salt in the chemical industries, for soda-ash, bitterns, 
etc., was not significant until a later period of settle- 
ment, but its common household and farm use was 
important, almost imperative. The necessity of salt 
for comfortable living is emphasized in the salt taxes of 
many governments, and its economic importance and 
supposed abundance in Michigan appears to have been 
a very strong influence in motivating the first Michigan 
geological survey expedition. ^^ Salt is commonly found 
in Michigan in brine wells and springs contained in 
the argillaceous strata, depending on the degree of 
subdivision; it appears in great abundance in the 
Saginaw country. Salt streams and salt licks were 

33. Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 104. 

34. There is a good brief discussion of the several formations 

with reference to their economic products in Mich. Geol. 
Survey Rep., IX, Part II, 13-36. 

35. The first geological expedition (1837) was made into the 

Saginaw region to examine the salt springs, an account 
of which is given in Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 189-201. 
The larger part of Houghton's report on the brine springs 
of this region (1838) is in Lanman's History of Michigan, 
354-363. Note the emphasis upon salt in the early State 
Geological reports in House Document (1839), No. 2, 
39-45; House Document (1840), No. 2, (I), 18-23; ]oint 
Document (1841), No. 5, 235-254; House Document (1842), 
No. 2, 15-21; Senate Document (1843), No. 9, 402-408; 
see Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., Mineral Resources (1912), 
pp. 315-336, for bibhography of the Michigan salt in- 
dustry. 



12 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

not uncommon, and in some cases they appear to have 
influenced settlement directly; a French settlement in 
southern Macomb County is said to have been induced 
by the ease of obtaining salt at the mouth of Saline 
creek ;36 the site of Saline in Washtenaw, on Saline 
River, was the site of an extensive deer-lick." Salt 
was not manufactured on a commercial scale in Mich- 
igan until much later than this period. ^^ 

Clay, sand and gravel, though formed and distrib- 
uted by glacial action, have their sources in the bed- 
rock. They make excellent building and road ma- 
terials and are almost everywhere abundant. A pure 
clay surface, or one in which clay is largely predom- 
inant, is likely to produce muddy roads and streets. 
Of this character were the roads leading from the 
eastern shore to the interior and the impediment they 
offered to settlement was one of the strong influences 
that led to the early introduction of the railway. ^^ 
The report that the citizens of Detroit commonly had 
to cross the streets in the wet season on horseback is 
probably no great exaggeration.'*" Heavy roads of 
clear sand were the opposite extreme on the western 
shore. The prevailing condition in the interior, how- 
ever, is a mixture of clay and sand, which the settlers 
by aid of abundant gravel could fashion into excellent 
thoroughfares. Sand was early used for glass manu- 

36. History of Macomb County (Chicago, 1882), 142. 

37. History of Washtenaw County (Chicago, 1881), 1369, 1373. 

38. Not until 1860, and not profitably until much later; but in 

these deposits there was the possibility, now reaHzed, of 
supplying one-fourth of the sale in the United States. 
Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 135. 

39. See Lenawee County, in chapter IV, this volume. 

40. See Detroit, in chapter III, this volume. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 13 

facture at Monroe and Alt. Clemens; and brick, though 
apparently not of the best quality, was early made at 
Detroit. 

Sandstone, from which the clays, sands and gravels 
are mainly derived is distributed in two wide rims, one 
immediately about the coal measures, the source of 
the beds along Sandstone creek in Jackson County ;^^ 
a second in a much wider circle furnished the quarries 
at Jonesville, Napoleon, Battle Creek and Marshall.*^ 
A thin rim of carbonaceous limestone circles between 
these sandstone areas, but its outcrops are very 
limited. Ledges of this rock form the rapids at 
Grand Rapids.'*^ The principal limestone area is the 
wide rim outcropping in Monroe and Wayne counties; 
it forms the rapids in the Raisin at Monroe and the 
beds of many rivers.^^ The boulders, of glacial origin, 
have in late years been much used for building. 

Coal and gypsum were but slightly exploited in the 
early period of settlement and hence, though today 
they are of very great importance, they can properly 
receive here only passing notice. Lying under a cloak 
of glacial and lake deposits, the coal basin covers a 
central area of about seven thousand square miles, 
estimated to contain some eight billion tons of coal.'*^ 
The extensive gypsum beds of Kent County form the 

41. Lanman, History of Michigan, 348-351. 

42. Blois, Gazetteer (New York, 1839), 39. 

44. Blois, Gazetteer, 292; Mich. House Doc. (1840), No. 5, p. 42. 

45. Blois, 349. 

46. Mich. Geol. Siirvey Rep. (1901), 127. For the mode of 

occurrence and quality of Michigan coal, see Ibid., VIII, 
Part II, (nine plates and colored map showing area of 
deposit); also Smith, Mineral Resources (1912), 257-303. 



14 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

important plaster industry near Grand Rapids.''^ 
Mineral springs were early observed; one of sulphu- 
reted hydrogen in Monroe County is said to have fur- 
nished enough power to run a small mill/^ 

The three principal soil types of the peninsula are 
determined by the relative predominance of sand, clay, 
and lime."^ The rims of bedrock have by various 
agencies, principally those of glacial and water action, 
given their own character to the soils immediately 
above them, especially where they have come com- 
paratively close to the surface. The outer rim of 
limestone underlying the eastern shore lands helps to 
give a distinctly calcareous soil to Wayne and Monroe 
counties. ^"^ The sandstone under the southeastern 
watershed and the western shore may be partly re- 
sponsible for the sandy pine-bearing soil of Oakland, 
also of Saginaw and Ottawa counties, and of the 
northern part of the peninsula. ^^ Corresponding to 
the mixed rocks of the coal measures there is a cor- 
responding variety in the soil.^-. 

The composition of the soil may be regarded from 
the point of view either of its mechanical or its chemi- 
cal composition. Its mechanical composition is due 
largely to forces released by glacial action. In its 
chemical composition the bed rocks have a large share. 

47. See "Michigan and the Plaster Industry," in Mich. Geol. 

Survey Rep. IX, Part II, (twenty-nine plates). 

48. Blois, Gazetteer, 45, 232; Houghton's report, in Lanman's 

Michigan, 364-365. 

49. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 75. 

50. Lanman, Michigan, 351; Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 79. 

51. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 78. 

52. Ibid., 76. The counties affected by each of these forma- 

tions can be seen on the map in Tackabury's Atlas, 38-39. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 15 

The requisites to the fertihty of the soil, while partly 
organic, are largely inorganic. The great bulk of it is 
composed of mineral substances derived from rock 
formations, '"^ and of these the rocks of the southern 
peninsula furnished a large proprotion of all but the 
alumina and potash, ^^ which were derived from the 
mica and feldspar in the pre-Cambrian formations. 
Much of the sand came from the latter source — the 
quartzites, granites, syenites, and gneissoid rocks of re- 
gions north of the peninsula — traceable even to rocks 
as far north as Hudson Bay. 

The transporting agents were the ancient continental 
glaciers. While there appears to be little agreement 
as to the cause, advance and retreat of these great ice 
masses, geologists concur as to the fact of the pheno- 
menon, and that it affected in varying degree all of 
the northern continents. ^^ As they advanced, scouring 
and grinding the rocks of the lower peninsula, the soil 
products were thoroughly mixed and spread in vary- 
ing thickness over a surface worn down and smoothed. 

The thickness of these glacial deposits average about 
three hundred feet. The greatest depth is not known. 

53. Silica, alumina, lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, oxide of 

magnesia, potash, soda, chlorine, sulphuric acid, car- 
bonic acid. 

54. Resources of Michigan (Lansing, 1893), 40. 

55. For theories of the advance and cause of the ice age, see 

Lane, "The Surface Geology of Michigan," in Mich. 
Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), 98-101. There is a good out- 
line for the southern part of the peninsula in Leverett, 
"Glacial Geology of Southeastern Michigan," in U. S. 
Geol Survey (1899), Monograph XXXVIII, 339-379, 
386-406, 432-450. A good brief bibliography of the 
glacial history and deposits of Michigan is given by 
Leverett in the Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, oj Science (1904), 
100-110. 



16 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Deep well borings have penetrated sixteen hundred feet 
and it is thought probable that they may reach an ex- 
treme depth of two thousand feet.^"^ It would be expect- 
ed from what has been said of the greatest elevation of 
the bed rocks, the soil would be thinnest on the glacial 
moraines, and that is found to be true; for example, in 
parts of Jackson and Hillsdale counties." 

The fineness of these soils, their mechanical composi- 
tion, is due obviously to forces introduced by glacial 
action, varying with the degree to which the rocks 
were broken up; and to the same agencies is due their 
mechanical distribution. The United States Bureau of 
Soil's scheme of soil classification for Michigan, based 
on mechanical composition, shows twenty varieties of 
soil varying from fine clay to the coarsest gravel, and 
the Michigan geological survey for 1907 has mapped 
the distribution of these under six principal groups. ^'^ 

56. Mich Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), 101. 

57. Sio(^th Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 103, 104. A special study 

has been made of soil depths in Monroe County, in Mich. 
Geol. Survey Rep., VII, 192 (Contains contour map of 
various depths). The average thickness of the drift in 
the lower peninsula is about 300 feet. See Leverett's 
discussion in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. 
Series 7 (1912), 19-20. 

58. For brief description of the soils of the State and their 

adaptibility to agriculture, see Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. 
(1907), 115-119. Accompanying this is a soil map of 
the State prepared by J. F. Nellist (in pocket), based 
upon the twenty fine-soil divisions made by the U. S. 
Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils. The latter ser- 
vice has prepared soil maps of the vicinities of Owosso, 
Allegan, Alma, Pontiac, Saginaw and Cass counties. On 
this map, the glacial outwash aprons (represented by 
bright yellow) indicate the better class of sandy lands, 
fine sandy soils resulting directly from glacial over-wash 
or deposited in glacial lakes. They are widely distrib- 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 17 

The general advantages of these soils are many and 
important. Some of them will be already apparent. 
Their great variety in both chemical amd mechanical 
composition and the comparatively wide distribution 
of most of them, laid the basis for a wide range of 
flora and of rural industries. The wide distribution 

uted but are most extensive in the south and west of 
the peninsula and along the crest of the southeastern 
divide above the bed-rock sandstone. The poorer sandy 
lands (light yellow), due mainly to glacial drainage, are 
found over the sandstone beds along the shore of Lake 
Michigan, also in narrow bands through the heavy clay 
along the eastern shore and around the head of Saginaw 
Bay. The soils of greatest extent are those of morainal 
origin. Both of the morainal soils cover a somewhat 
rolling and stony surface. That in which clay pre- 
dominates (solid red) is distributed mainly in wide 
bands which mark the successive projections of the Sag- 
inaw and Huron ice lobes into the interior. The soil of 
similar character (stippled red) in which sand predom- 
inates is of looser texture and covers wide areas over the 
southern and central portions of the peninsula. The 
till plains (blue) have more clay than the morainal soils 
and cover a less hilly, or even level, surface, lying be- 
tween the moraines. They are a fine sandy clay and 
cover portions of the southern limestone areas, but they 
are most abundant between the moraines southwest of 
Saginaw Bay. Along the eastern shore, covering a large 
part of Monroe, Wayne, Macomb and St. Clair counties 
and reaching inland from Saginaw Bay far south into 
Shiawassee County, is a stiff lake clay (green) represent- 
ing the ancient glacial lake bottom over limestone areas. 
This is one of the most fertile soils of the peninsula, and 
was the first with which settlers from the East came in 
contact. Its heavy forests of ash and elm seriously 
checked its settlement. See also map (new edition of 
Lane's map of 1907) of a somewhat more minute classi- 
fication, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. 
Series 7 (1912), opposite p. 12. Detailed data is given 
in the same volume (pp. 87-140), by counties, arranged 
alphabetically, sho^ving area, swamp and lake sections, 
and the predominant soils in each township. 
3 



18 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

and abundant proportions of sand, which gains heat 
rapidly, gives warmth to the soil, moderated by the 
presence of clay. Mositure is well proportioned. The 
porosity of the sand prevents the drowning of crops, 
and the depth of the soil together with the clay keeps it 
from drying out. There is little irreclaimable marsh- 
land. In general the soil is easy to work, for the 
assorting action of glacial lakes left the finer materials 
on the surface. With a few exceptions it is not stony 
like New England soil, and there are few barrens due 
to outcrops. The mixture of clay and sand makes a 
soil not too adhesive for the plow, and one not easily 
washed full of gullies. The limestone areas are spe- 
cially fortified against deterioration through wasteful 
farming, and in many places there is an abundance of 
natural fertilizers. 

Important to these soils is their drainage and their 
water supply, which depends largely upon the topog- 
raphy of the peninsula. The striking similarity be- 
tween certain topographic features of the whole of the 
surrounding region suggests a common origin in some 
force that operated more widely than in Michigan 
only. A common feature is seen, for instance, in the 
general direction of the axis of the Saginaw River and 
Bay, the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, the Maumee 
River and the Bay and the Fox River and Green Bay. 
This long ago observed by Alexander Winchell was 
designated by him the "diagonal system" in the topog- 
raphy of this region. The axes appear to have been 
determined by the direction in which the ice lobes were 
projected, in combination with the strike, or angle, of 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 19 

the strata over which they passed. ^^ Where the bed- 
rocks were sufficiently consoHdated to offer effective 
resistance to the force of the ice, the diagonal direc- 
tion of the surface features suffered modification; for 
example, the Michigan shore of Lake Michigan now 
runs approximately north and south. Along part of 
the eastern shore the underlying trend caused con- 
jointly by these forces has been concealed by post- 
glacial deposits; the St. Clair and Detroit rivers run- 
ning over these southward cause the peninsula in this 
part to have a nearly uniform width. 

By the original position of the ice lobes, by the depth 
of the great lake basins and by the gradual recession 
of the glacial waters, the peninsula was left with an 
area large enough to insure a variety of settlement and 
a pioneer period of long duration. Roughly, the pen- 
insula has an area of two hundred by three hundred 
miles, with the longer axis north and south. «" That 
portion of it which lies south of the latitude of the head 
of Saginaw Bay, which alone received settlers by 1837, 
about equals the combined areas of Vermont, Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. «• The average width of this 
part of the peninsula is about one hundred and ninety 

59. See Winchell's formula for the relation of the glacial and 

stratigraphic forces in the topography of the region, in 
Tackabury's Atlas, 14, and a more extended discussion 
in Amer. Jour, of Science, 3rd ser., VI, 36-40. The 
"diagonal system" in Monroe County is discussed in 
Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., VII, 118. 

60. The extreme length of the lower peninsula is 277.09 miles; 

the extreme width is 197.057 miles. (Tackabury's 
Atlas, 9). 

61. Montcalm County was organized in 1850 {Session Laws, 

121), with a population of about nine hundred {U. S. 
Census, 1850, 893). 



20 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

miles, and the relation of this wide area to settlement 
is seen in the comparatively late organization of county 
and township government on the western shore. 

The character of the shore lands is such as to have 
given countenance to unfavorable reports about the 
interior; at least in that respect they were a retarding 
influence upon settlement.''^ These lands present three 
well marked differences. The southeastern shore is 
low, and comparatively level for a distance inland of 
from five to twenty-five miles ; on the north and north- 
east of the peninsula outcrops of bedrock give the coast 
an abrupt and forbidding appearance; on the western 
shores, low lines of wind-blown sand dunes rising in 
places two and three hundred feet high suggest a 
sterile back country.*'^ 

The surface of the peninsula, especially of the south- 
ern part, lends itself easily to agriculture, grazing, 
lumbering and manufacture. This again is due to the 
action of the waters of the melting ice lobes, eroding 
and distributing the drift materials, determining the 
undulations of the surface and the courses of the prin- 
cipal streams. The topographical result for agricul- 
ture is the almost total absence of the inconveniently 
steep hillsides so characteristic of portions of New 
England and eastern New York. Yet the surface has 

62. Oaldand County was organized in 1820, Van Buren in 1837. 

63. Blois, Gazetteer, 49; Detroit Gazette, Jnne 23, 1820. 

64. Lanman, Michigan, 363. The conical cliff of white sand 

south of Grand Traverse Bay, known as Sleeping^ Bear, 
has a height of over three hundred feet. Blois, Gazetteer, 
■ 363. vSee also Jefferson, Geography of Michigan, p. 23, 
fig. 11, showing the dunes on Lake Michigan. Mention 
will be made of the encroachments of these sands in con- 
nection with deforestation. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 21 

sufficient elevations to insure lively streams for drain- 
age and water power, and among them intervene large 
areas of level or slightly undulating land.^'^ 

The largest plain of the peninsula, the Grand -Maple - 
Saginaw valley, extending across it diagonally from 
the head of Saginaw Bay to Lake Michigan may have 
been scoured out, if not produced, by the ice mass of 
the Saginaw lobe." One of the early state improve- 
ment schemes was to re-connect the two lakes across 
this depression by a canal. ''^ 

The portion of the peninsula south of this central 
plain is divided also into two watersheds by the south- 
eastern morainal elevation noted above. ^^ This reaches 
its greatest height, over seven hundred feet above lake 
level, in Oakland and Hillsdale counties i^" from this prin- 
cipal ridge irregular lines of small rounded hills run west- 
ward, in the intervals of which lie valleys with small 

66. A map of contour lines is given in Tackabury's Atlas, 

opposite p. 10, which was prepared from some six thou- 
sand elevations measured in running levels for railroad 
and canal surveys. A line is drawn for every fifty feet 
of elevation. Few differences appear in the more recent 
map accompanying the Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., for 1907. 
See, also plate V, opposite p. 24, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. 
Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7. 

67. See for history of the Great Lakes, American Geologist, XIV, 

289-301. Diagrams of the retiring ice lobes, and of the 
lakes in front of them are given in Mich. Geol. Survey 
Rep. (1907), 124-131. 

68. Blois, Gazetteer, 83. The highest point of the plain, a 

moraine in Gratiot County, was only seventy-two feet 
above lake level. 

69. For fuller discussion, see chapter IV on the first inland 

counties, and Leverett, in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, 
Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7 (1912), p. 18. 

70. Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 104. 



22 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

streams. ^1 The position of this ridge so near to the 
eastern shore makes the eastern watershed somewhat 
abrupt, and its streams in parts of their courses are 
correspondingly short and rapid. The current of the 
Raisin, for example, while profiting by this for water 
power, is said to have been early considered too rapid 
for navigation. ^2 Qn the other hand, the long gentle 
western watershed had sufficient incline for good water 
power, and all of its principal streams were originally 
navigated by small craft. ^' 

Northward from the central plain lies a second prin- 
cipal elevation conforming to the general diagonal sys- 
tem of the peninsula. This is higher than the southern 
one, averaging about seven hundred feet, reaching its 
extreme height of 1120 feet above lake level in Osceola 
county.^"* 

The topography and soil of the peninsula and the 
manner of their formation caused the general char- 

71. A table of elevations for these summits is given in Tacka- 

bur^^'s Atlas, 12. 

72. A contour map of Monroe County, giving a line for every 

ten feet of elevation, forms the frontispiece in Mich. 
Geol. Survey Rep., VII. 

73. A graphic comparison of elevations in the southern part of 

the peninsula is seen in profiles of several railway beds 
shown in the Mich. State Board of Health Rep. (1878) — 
Det. & Mil. R. R., 179; Mich. Cent. R. R., 181; Lake 
Shore and Mich. Southern R. R., 185. 

74. Sixth Rep. Mich. Acad, of Science, 103. The relation be- 

tween the northern and southern divides and the central 
depression is shown clearly by the profile of the bed of 
the old Saginaw and Mackinac division of the Mich. 
Cent. R. R., lying through Jackson, Ingham, Clinton, 
Shiawassee, Saginaw, Bay, Roscommon and Otsego 
counties, in Mich. State Board of Health Rep. (1878), 181. 
See also profile of the Flint and Pere Marquette, Ibid., 
179. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 23 

acter of the rivers and streams. " Compared with other 
rivers of the United States they are small, but they are 
numerous, and measured by the windings of their 
courses they are of great length. They have numer- 
ous branches, and the branchlets of these in turn make 
a network of small water courses of great value for 
drainage, stock and distribution of water power. The 
abundant supply of water to these streams is due to 
generous rainfall, porosity of soil, and the many in- 
terior lakes. The sinuosity of courses, the gentleness 
of current and the evenness of volume are due to the 
same causes combined with an undulating surface. At 
many points ledges of bedrock cause rapids, though 
these in general do not occur near enough to the lakes 
to prevent navigation inland for small boats up to the 
settlements made at the power sites, as at Grand 
Rapids and Allegan. The mouths of many of the 
rivers furnished to settlers good natural harbors. 

The principal rivers of the eastern watershed are the 
Raisin, the Huron, the Clinton, and the Saginaw, and 
their branches. Raisin River, though one of the most 
rapid streams of the peninsula, has the most winding 
course of all. In a direct line from its source in the 
moraine in Hillsdale County to its mouth in Lake 
Erie it is but sixty miles; by its windings it measures 
one hundred and thirty miles. The rapidity of its 
descent and its long meanderings distribute widely 
many excellent power sites, while its high banks and 

75. For a good brief description of the leading features of the 
drainage system of the lower peninsula, see Leverett, 
in Mich. Geol. and Biol. Survey, Pub. 9, Geol. Series 7, 
pp. 24-27. 



24 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

limestone bed make for both beauty and utility. ^^ 
Huron River has a less rapid descent and hence a 
more moderate current than the Raisin. The com- 
parative sinuosity of its course may be judged from its 
ninety miles of windings over a direct distance about 
the same as that measured by the Raisin. It shares 
two characteristics of the rivers rising in the southern 
divide — the presence of numerous small lakes and 
creeks at and near their heads, and the receipt of the 
bulk of their waters in the upper part of their courses, 
characteristics which make strongly icr an even supply 
of water power." 

Clinton River rises in the numerous small lakes of 
the Oakland County moraine, and though only fifty 
miles long it gives valuable power at many sites. 
Twenty miles of the lower course, from Mt. Clemens 
to Rochester, was originally navigable for small boats ;^* 
the removal of the bars at this river mouth, as well as 
at the mouth of the Raisin, was the earliest harbor 
improvement, opening these rivers for large boats to 
Mt. Clemens and Monroe. 

The thirty miles of Saginaw River is really a drowned 
valley. This river is therefore comparatively sluggish, 
and though navigable, having a depth of from twenty 
to thirty feet, it gives little power. ^^ Bvit its many 
branches — the Cass, the Tittabawassee, the Chippewa, 
the Flint, and the Thread — are lively streams furnish- 

76. Blois, Gazetteer, 349. 

77. Ibid., 303. 

78. Ihid., 264. 

79. Ibid., 355-356. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 25 

ing power in abundance. On the latter branch were 
built the first mills of this region.^" 

The rivers of the western watershed that were most 
important to settlement in this period were the St. 
Joseph, the Kalamazoo and the Grand. ^^ These have 
much in common. The sources of their main branches 
lie close together, in that portion of the southeastern 
moraine which gives rise to the Raisin and the Huron. 
From here their courses rapidly diverge, enclosing two 
pieces of land roughly triangular in shape, which have 
their bases abutting on Lake Michigan. Their mouths 
on that shore are a considerable distance apart. That 
of the Kalamazoo is forty-one miles north of the mouth 
of the St. Joseph, and twenty-nine miles south of that 
of the Grand. All are serpentine, measuring along 
their windings more than double the direct distance 
from source to mouth, and their branches minutely 
sub-divide over wide basins. The Grand drains in the 
central plain an area co-extensive with the larger por- 
tion of the coal measures. They have comparatively 
uniform currents, though in the wet season they gen- 
erally increase in volume; the St. Joseph rises in places 
from four to six feet. The increase of power at these 
times causes them to erode their banks at the turnings, 
and often to deposit, as at Niles, sufficient debris to 

80. Attention will be given later to St. Clair River and its 

branches, and to the smaller streams flowing into the 
eastern shore water, which were many and very im- 
portant to settlement. See the study of St. Clair River 
and delta in Mich. Geol. Survey Rep., IX, 1-25, (Maps 
and diagrams). 

81. Blois, Gazetteer, 294, 306, 367. There is a good brief out- 

line of the river system of western Michigan in the 
American Geologist, 1, 143-146. 



26 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

obstruct navigation. ^2 Except in a few places erosion 
has worn deep their beds, making high banks which 
protect the neighboring lands from freshets. Mill 
sites are plentiful and navigation is possible for a con- 
siderable distance inland. Excepting for sand-bars, 
the width and depth made these river mouths originally 
excellent harbors. The mouth of the St. Joseph, for 
instance, was originally a quarter of a mile wide and 
from nine to fourteen feet deep. 

The advantages of these waterways to early settle- 
ment were many and obvious. Except at Detroit, the 
early French settlements were at the river mouths and 
along the lower courses of the rivers and streams flow- 
ing into the eastern water front. The American set- 
tlers, going up these streams in search of open land 
and mill sites, were aided in their search by the Indian 
trails along the banks of the largest streams.- The aid 
of water power in cutting lumber was much needed in 
the early days when it was costly and difficult to trans- 
port steam machinery inland, and when sawed lumber 
was much in demand by an ever increasing number of 
home-builders. The "saw-mill town" was hkely to 
have at an early time its grist mill, distillery and tan- 
nery because of the same supply of cheap power. 
Water power was often most easily obtained at the 
junction of a creek with the main stream, or at a bend 
in the river where a dam could be easily made and a 
rapid fall be secured by cutting across the neck of the 
projecting land — as at Dexter, Tecumseh or Adrian. 
A ford in the river, marked often by the crossing of an 
Indian trail, or by a junction of such trails, offered ad- 

82. Lanman, Michigan, 375. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 27 

vantages for transportation in addition to power — as 
at Jackson, Kalamazoo and Pontiac. Ledges of rocks 
in the river formed rapids and made excellent power 
sites — as at Grand Rapids, Allegan and Monroe. 

It will be observed that east of the southeastern 
divide, settlements were very early made at Rochester, 
Pontiac, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Tecumseh and Adrian. ^^ 
The situation of these in a line almost parallel with the 
shore and about half way between the shore and the 
crest of the divide was not fortuitous, but marked the 
presence of a water power belt.^^ Some emphasis 
should be placed upon the extent to which the small 
creeks gave water power, a distinct factor in the ex- 
tension of the frontier away from the principal streams. 
They were especially useful in the vicinity of the eastern 
highland, since their power, which depended upon their 
fall, was there in many cases very great; for example, 
Pettibone Creek, a diminutive stream in Oakland 
County with a fall of about a hundred feet in eight 
miles, furnishes at various village sites a total of two 
hundred horsepower. ^^ Their utility for drainage and 
the watering of stock gains importance from their 
minute subdivision — like the Rouge, a small branch of 
the Detroit river which drains an estimated area of 
three hundred and sixty square miles. ^^ Most of these 

83. There is a good brief statement of the water power of 

southern Michigan in the Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 
126. A more detailed study is contained in the Water 
Supply Papers, Nos. 30, 48, 49 of the U . S. Geol. Survey. 
See also the discussion for the southern tier of counties 
in Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1903), 73-83 (Maps). 

84. Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1901), 126. 

85. Resources of Michigan (1893), 90. 

86. Ibid., 90. 



28 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

streams are fed by springs and lakes which regulate 
their volume and hence their efficiency. Clinton River 
in Oakland County is fed by a chain of lakes." 

The economical transportation of logs and lumber by 
water has always been an item of great value in the 
settlement of Michigan. It was specially so in the 
early days when economy in all things was a necessity. 
Easy transportation extended the service of one mill 
on a stream to all the settlements below, and the 
tributaries above a mill extended the availability of 
timber to their farthest reach. The cost of hauling 
logs overland confined early lumbering to their banks, 
leaving the intervening tracts to the day of the rail- 
road; yet the amount of timber that could be easily 
reached by water was large, and much lumber was 
exported. At Allegan four million feet of lumber was 
cut in 1839 and rafted to Lake Michigan down the 
Kalamazoo River. ^^ In the same year three million 
feet of lumber was rafted for shipment from Grand 
Rapids to Grand Haven. ^^ Even after the railroad 
appeared, river transportation was used wherever pos- 
sible and saved many millions of dollars to the lumber 
industry. 

River navigation and canal building naturally re- 
ceived much attention in the days when overland travel 
meant principally the wagon and the stagecoach. It 

87. Ibid., 91. Artesian wells have been used for power to run 

hydraulic rams, and like the springs, furnish a perpetual 
supply of drinking water for house and stock. For 
artesian well areas, springs and non-flowing wells, see 
Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1903), 47-72; also the Ann 
Arbor Folio, prepared by the U. S. Geol. Survey. 

88. Lanman, Michigan, 368. 

89. Ibid., 367. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 29 

has been noted that several of the rivers of Michigan 
were by nature fitted for navigation to some distance 
inland, but little success was met in trying to navigate 
the eastern rivers. The current of the Raisin appears 
to have been considered too rapid, except near the 
mouth. The Huron was used by the first settlers of 
Washtenaw county for poleboats, and at one time the 
citizens of ,Ypsilanti made an unsuccessful experiment 
with a large boat of that type to run between there and 
the lake. 90 The Clinton was navigable for small boats 
from Mt. Clemens to Rochester; the vicinity of this 
river was the site of the most active attempt to build 
state canals. 31 

Of the western rivers the Grand was the most promis- 
ing for navigation. 9- The Kalamazoo had a gentle cur- 
rent, but enough volume to enable large boats to reach 
Allegan; in the wet season they could go up as far as 
Kalamazoo. 9^ The St. Joseph was ordinarily navig- 
able for small steamboats to Niles, and by poleboats 
from there to Three Rivers. ^^ The Grand is said to 
have been navigable for small boats two hundred and 
forty of its two hundred and seventy miles of length ;3^ 
in the season of 1836 there were on the Grand River 
four boats of the tonnage and construction of the Erie 
Canal boats, in addition to a class of smaller boats of 

90. See chapter IV, on the First Inland Counties. 

91. Blois, Gazetteer, 82. 

92. For water power and navigabihty of the Grand, the Kala- 

mazoo and the St. Joseph rivers, see the reports of 
surveyors to the State Commissioners of Internal Im- 
provement, in Lanman's Michigan, 366-383. 

93. Ibid., 368. 

94. Ibid., 372. 

95. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 121. 



30 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

from ten to fifteen tons burden ;^^ in 1839 a steamboat 
of three and one-half feet draft made daily trips be- 
tween Grand Haven and Grand Rapids, and two more 
boats of the same class were added before 1840." 

The Great Lakes were valuable complements of the 
river system of Michigan for transportation, commerce 
and fisheries. These great basins, comprising together 
more than one-half of the fresh water of the globe were, 
if not entirely produced, widened, deepened and filled 
by glacial action. ^^ It was most significant for the 
later settlement of Michigan that the position of 
the head of Lake Michigan should have brought 
within such easy reach from Michigan a point 
fitted to become the great central market of the 
Middle West — the site of Chicago. The combined 
action of lake and river made possible very good 
harbors in the drowned valleys of the river mouths, 
some of which needed but little improvement to make 
them immediately effective for settlement; the mouth 
of Grand River originally admitted vessels of twelve 
feet draft. ^^ The small lakes along the western shore 
at river mouths are drowned valleys and many of them 
have been made into good harbors by cutting through 
the sandbars that hem them in from the lake.'o" Har- 
bor improvements were early made at the mouths of 

96. Lanman, Michigan, 367. 

97. Ibid., 367. 

98. The origin of the basins is discussed in the Quart. Jour. Geol. 

Soc. Lond., XLVI, 523-533. See for a bibliography of 
the Great Lakes, G. C. Russell, Lakes of North America, 
96-104. 

99. Blois, Gazetteer, 294. 
100. Lanman, Michigan, 370. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 31 

the Clinton and the Raisin. ^"1 As early as 1818 steam 
transportation began on Lake Erie from Buffalo to 
Detroit; in 1834 a boat built and launched at Monroe 
is said to have begun regular trips to Buffalo.^"' Im- 
migrants are said to have been brought to the western 
shore of Michigan by way of the lakes as early as 1830 
and this route became the common way of transport- 
ing goods to "the western part of the peninsula.^"'' 
Shipbuilding was fostered by the needs of growing 
settlement and became early an important industry at 
Detroit, Monroe, Mt. Clemens and St. Clair. i"* 

While the fish of the Great Lakes did not become 
of commercial importance until the decade 1830-40, 
the early settlers placed a high value upon them.^°^ 
The Jesuits and travelers of very early days noted the 
abundance and variety of these fish, and they are 
mentioned with emphasis in an English emigrant's 
guidebook of 1820.^"*^ The most favored fish seem to 
have been the whitefish, the sturgeon, the lake trout, 
the bass, the pickerel and the herring. ^"^ Among the 
French the autumn fishing season for whitefish was one 
of much pleasure and excitement, the whitefish being 
specially valued for its fine flavor.^"* Not least im- 

101. See chapter III, on Monroe. 

102. Ibid. 

103. See chapters V and VI on the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo 

valleys. 

104. See chapter III, this volume. 

105. Resources of Michigan (1893), 176. 

106. A Geographical, Historical, Commercial and Agricultural 

View oj the United States, etc., Lond., 1820, p. 695. 

107. The varieties most commonly known to the early settlers 

were the sturgeon, whitefish, trout, pickerel, pike, perch, 
herring, bass, etc., (Blois, Gazetteer, 55). 

108. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 361. 



32 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

portant for settlement was the distribution of many 
varieties of lake fish inland by means of the rivers and 
streams. The sturgeon, which came up the rivers to 
spawn in the early spring, were caught in large num- 
bers i^"^ they were no small addition to a settler's 
larder, averaging in weight about seventy pounds j^^" 
of the smaller fish, the lake-trout averaged from ten to 
twenty pounds. The rapid increase in settlement be- 
ginning about 1830, and the demand for fish by neigh- 
boring states, attracted the attention of capitalists to 
the Great Lakes fisheries, among others the American 
Fur Company, who employed chiefly the French-Can- 
adians. ^^^ It is estimated that in 1830 eight thousand 
barrels of fish, valued at forty thousand dollars, were 
put on the market. ^^^ ^j^e rapid growth of the indus- 
try is seen in the thirteen thousand five hundred 
barrels, valued at one hundred and twenty -five thou- 
sand dollars, marketed in 1837. Three-fourths of the 
entire amount was shipped to Ohio, New York, and 
Pennsylvania . ^ ^^ 

The inland lakes, so characteristic of Michigan 
topography except on the eastern shore lands, were 
useful to settlers for their fish and game. In some 
places they furnished water for stock, and facilities for 
transportation and liunbering. Like the Great Lakes, 
these were of glacial origin, being depressions in the 
surface filled with water from the melting ice. The 

109. Lanman, Michigan, 264. 

110. Blois, Gazetteer, 56. 

111. Lanman, Michigan, 264; Blois, Gazetteer, SI . 

112. Blois, Gazetteer, 56; Detroit Journal and Michigan Adver- 

tiser, December 15, 1830. 

113. Blois, Gazetteer, 57. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 33 

extent and wide distribution of these bodies of water 
in Michigan has given rise to the idea of reclaiming the 
fertile soils which they cover. They vary in size from 
one acre to a thousand acres, and in some places they 
are so close together that several can be seen from one 
point of view. They are most numerous where the 
surface is most irregular, as along the southeastern 
divide; in Oakland County there are some four hun- 
dred of them. Numbering in the peninsula about five 
thousand, they cover several thousand square miles. 
In general they are quite deep and have gravelly bot- 
toms; where they are fed by springs their waters are 
cool and transparent. Bass, pike, pickerel, perch, sun- 
fish and blue gills are common to most of them,!^'* and 
they are the resort of a variety of aquatic fowls. Rem- 
iniscenses of settlers abound in descriptions of their 
beauty. With these advantages, besides affording in- 
exhaustible pure water for stock, one of these lakes 
made a valuable appendage to a settler's farm. To 
quote an extract from a settler's letter i^^^ "No part of 
the country is more healthy than the vicinity of these 
lakes, and emigrants who are not haunted with vain 
fears and prejudices respecting their tendency to pro- 
duce ague and fever always seek to locate by the side 
of them." However, it is commonly reported by 
travelers in the early days that comparatively few 
people settled on their banks, finding location sites of 
greater economic advantage on a stream, a traveled 
highway or on open land. 

114. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 265. 

115. Detroit Free Press, October 6, 1831. 

5 



34 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

These lakes are by many thousands less numerous 
now than in the period when they were formed. Na- 
tural drainage, evaporation, wave action and vegetation 
have filled in many of them, which survive as marshes, 
peat bogs, meadows and small prairies. The lake de- 
posits are economically very important for settlement. 
Marl has many uses, among others that of a natural 
fertilizer. Peat, which "represents an advanced stage 
of swamp with drainage partly established, "^^^ was 
not significant for settlement when timber was abun- 
dant. Muck land, a preliminary stage of peat, ex- 
emplified in the original state of the present celery beds 
near Kalamazoo, makes very productive land when 
drained; meadow land, like that originally in south- 
eastern Jackson County, represents a condition of poor 
drainage rather than a soil composition. 

In the small prairies, most of which are in south- 
western Michigan, settlers found many attractions, and 
these lands exercised in that region a very decided in- 
fluence upon early settlement. In origin and nature 
these little islets in the original forest were the same 
with the great prairies south and west of them. Their 
soil represents the deposits of glacial lakes which were 
drained perhaps as early as the recession of the glacial 
waters. Their lake origin is witnessed by abundant 
shells, and by the thickness of decayed vegetation. 
The treeless character of these areas was due partly to 
natural causes, and partly to the Indians. The grass 
early got the start of trees because of the agencies which 
supplied its first seeds — birds, wind and water, which 

116. Adich. Gcol. Survey Rep. (1907), 112. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 35 

could convey only the lighter seeds ;i^^ later, the Indians 
fired these grass-lands annually, as well as the forests, 
to improve their hunting-grounds by decoying the deer 
to the tender new growths. "» 

In marked contrast to these open prairies were the 
forest lands, whose relation to settlement was definite 
both in respect of their timber and their soils. In some 
places the removal of the forest has made very em- 
phatic its value as a protection to the soil ; as at Grand 
Haven, where the encroachment of the sand, made 
incoherent by deforestation, has in late years become 
a serious menace. The wind, given a free passage, 
carries the loose sand far inland and overlays the pro- 
ductive soils with it. The results of this show plainly 
in the slower settlement of western Ottawa County as 
compared with that of portions of the western shore 
where the dunes are less prominent. ^^^ On the other 
hand, settlement was in places variously impeded by 
the density of the forest. Washing away of the soil, 
which in mountainous countries has frequently fol- 
lowed deforestation, is provided against in this pen- 
insula by the comparatively level surface. In past 
times the forest has been the most important source of 
the organic properties of the soil, for a great majority 
of Michigan trees are deciduous. The effect of the 
forest upon the supply of moisture and hence upon 
climate, drainage and health, has been remarked fre- 

117. Winchell, Soils and Subsoils, 85. 

118. Blois, Gazetteer, 26; Detroit Gazette, Nov. 8, 1825. 

119. See a discussion of this difficiilty in Mich. Pomological Soc. 

Rep. (1875). 



36 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

quently;i2o directly, the himber industry has affected 
population by drawing to Michigan capital and men 
from lumbering states in the East; in later settlement, 
lumbering in the softwood belt was chiefly responsible 
for the large accessions of Canadians. Lumbering on 
this scale, however, was not an influence upon settle- 
ment before 1850, at about which time there began 
that systematic exploitation of timber in the Grand 
and Saginaw valleys that has been a strong influence 
in building up larger centers of population and in- 
dustry there. Lumbering and manufacturing in Mich- 
igan have been externally influenced by the position of 
Michigan near to the great grain producing section 
with its wide markets for agricultural machinery and 
furniture. The extent of this market may be meas- 
ured by the reported production in 1881 of enough 
lumber to build handsome dwellings for a city of a 
million people. 

The variety of Michigan trees was almost as great a 
stimulus to settlement as their abundance. It has 
been estimated that the trees native to Michigan's 
soils have a variety nine times greater than those 
native to the soils of Great Britain ;i2i no part of the 
United States was originally more favored. This 
wealth of forest was due mainly to superior range in 
climate and soils. 122 Roughly, the forests appear to 

120. Semple, American History and its Geographic Conditions 

(Boston, 1903), 331, 354. Resources of Michigan (1883), 
17. 

121. Mich. Pomological Soc. Rep. (1875), 244. See Ibid., p. 238, 

for a list of the most common trees. A more complete 
list is given in Resources of Michigan (1883), 67. 

122. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXII, 354. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 37 

have presented but two strongly marked divisions, one 
north and another south of the parallel of 43° of lati- 
tude. The pine and soft woods were north, the hard 
woods south. 12^ Within these limits the minor dif- 
ferentia were the river valleys, the streams and swamps, 
and the uplands, which w^ere chiefly a matter of the 
kinds of soil. 

There appears to be a quite definite relation between 
variety of timber and the kinds of soil supporting it. 
As above observed, the hard wood belt lies largely 
south of the latitude of 43°; that is, in the region dis- 
tinctly characterized by glacial moraines. North of 
that parallel there are great areas of sandy lands, and 
there the pine and soft woods predominate. There are 
a few exceptions to the occurrence of pine south of that 
line, but these are mainly on sandy lands, as in Oakland 
County, and in southwestern Michigan where pine ex- 
tends down quite to the Indiana line.^24 Qf the hard 
woods, while originally a given variety was found fairly 
well distributed it was of course likely to be specially 
abundant on the soil most favorable to it. Beech, oak, 
hickory and sugar-maple were found most abundant 
on soils containing much lime and clay.^" 'pj^g j^g_ 
chanical composition of the soil also affected forest dis- 
tribution. The oaks were originally the most abundant 
hard woods, corresponding to the most common soils. 
The burr-oak plains were largely glacial outwash 
aprons, with much lime in their composition, more 
gravelly and sandy than the oak-openings. Scrub -oak 

123. Mich. Hortictiltural Soc. Rep. (1880), 429-430. 

124. Ibid., 429; Tackabury's Atlas, 19. 

125. Winchell, Soils and Sub-soils, 80. 



38 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

was most abundant over the poorer quality of sands; 
as the lake sands, or those from glacial drainage. Oak 
flourished, in general, over the gravelly or sandy loams 
and clays, the typical soils of the hardwood belt. 
Beech and maple were plentiful on the more clayey 
portions of these soils, and on the till plains. Ash and 
elm abounded on the stiff lake clay of the shore lands. 
The relation of timber to soil furnished the settler 
with an additional and fairly reliable index to the 
character of lands. ^^e jj^g experience with similar soils 
in his old home enabled him to judge fairly well of their 
adaptation to crops. Burr-oak was early held to in- 
dicate one of the best of soils for wheat, and the burr- 
oak plains were next in favor after the prairies. Oc- 
casionally a mistake was made, as with the highly pro- 
ductive bright yellow loam of the openings covered with 
hickory, which had the appearance of being sterile.^" 
Lanman says this soil was excellent for wheat. ^^s Set- 
tlers looked also askance at the sandy soil of the pine 
land. ^29 In general, the heavily timbered land was 
held not to be so congenial to wheat, and was not warm 

126. The relation of soil to timber as here given is from personal 

information from Professor Leverett. 

127. Blois, Gazetteer, 24. There appears to have been some prej- 

udice against the oak-openings; for example, see Detroit 
Gazette for September 1, 1820. An editorial in the 
Gazette for August 2, 1822, says that "Oak-openings are 
supposed by some to be destitute of a thick growth of 
timber by reason of the poverty or of some peculiar 
properties of the soil," and the editor corrects this view. 
But the Detroit Free Press of September 22, 1831, says 
of the burr-oak openings that they are preferred to 
prairies, being like those in the Genesee country in 
western New York. 

128. Lanman, Michigan, 323. 

129. Blois, Gazetteer, 23. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 39 

enough for corn, but was known to produce excellent 
crops of hay, oats and potatoes. ^^^ These limitations 
combined with the obstacles to clearing, caused this 
land to be settled slowly. The best soils were supposed 
to lie under a covering of black-walnut, whitewood, ash, 
buckeye, and sugar-maple; while the poorer land, char- 
acterized by a grayish sand over blue clay, was indexed 
by much soft-maple and some varieties of beech. ^^^ 

The relative density of the forest was to the early 
settler a matter to consider seriously, if only from the 
point of view of the relative difficulties of getting a 
paying first crop. Blois in his Gazetteer, w^hich bears 
marks of being intended largely for the use of immi- 
grants, makes this the basis of his soil classification, — 
pine lands, timbered lands, openings, plains and 
prairies, ^^2 ^nd the more legitimiately in that, as just 
observed, the qualities of soil did vary with the den- 
sity of timber. 

Density of growth in the hardwood belt appears to 
have been governed by the amount of moisture. The 
heavily timbered lands lay along the rivers and streams, 
especially where the ground was low and wet ; while the 
openings, which covered the greater part of the hard- 
wood belt, lay along the elevations between the water- 
courses. One explanation of this distribution appears 
to be the protection which the greater moisture af- 
forded against the annual fires set by the Indians to 
burn the underbrush. ^^s 



130. Ibid., 24. 

131. Lanman, Michigan, 322. 

132. Blois, Gazetteer, 22. 

133. Ibid., 130. 



40 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The soils which favored greatest density among the 
hardwoods were the clays on the till plains and along 
the lake shores. Some areas of till plain very defi- 
nitely affected settlement through their density of 
forest, as in the southern parts of Lenawee and Hills- 
dale Counties. •^^'^ Heavy forests of ash and elm orig- 
inally skirted the eastern shores for many miles in- 
land/^^ and in Wayne and Monroe counties formed a 
decided barrier to immigration. It has been observed 
that the parallel of 43° dividing the hardwood from the 
softwood belt, marked an increase in density of forest 
that seriously impeded the northward extension of the 
frontier i'^*^ and it seems certain that in 1838 little was 
known of the region north of the Grand River, i" 

The relation of settlement to density of forest and to 
the soils thus indicated, may be seen in the actual pro- 
cess of getting a first crop. One of the chief obstacles 
on the heavily timbered land was the necessity of first 
cutting off the timber, which was not only hard to cut, 
but according to reports some of it, like the giant white- 
wood, "positively refused to burn";!^^ and after it was 
cut and burned the stumps remained, with roots deep 
down in the porous soil. In the openings the timber 
and stump problem was reduced. There the trees were 
often so far apart as to permit teams to drive easily 
miles in any direction. A characteristic of Michigan 

134. See infra chapters on the "First Inland Counties" and 

"The St. Joseph Valley." 

135. Blois, Gazetteer, 39. 

136. Semple, Amer. Hist., 153. See map showing relative den- 

sity of forest in Sixth Ann. Rep. State Board oj Health 
(1878), 190. 

137. Blois, Gazetteer, 22. 

138. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 148-150. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 41 

forests due to porosity of soil was the absence of fallen 
trees, which greatly aided the settlement of the open- 
ings. But there was the grub problem, especially 
where the openings, as was often the case, bordered on 
dense forest. This was due probably to the cessation 
of the annual Indian fires. Whereas it took ordinarily 
three yokes of oxen to break the soil of the openings, 
these "grub lots" required six yokes, and sometimes it 
was necessary to hitch a yoke to the back of the plow 
to pull it out of difficulty. i''^ The burr-oak plains could 
be easily broken when there were no grubs, but they 
often had the disadvantage of too little timber 
for fencing and building. These plains were of great 
beauty and appealed strongly to the early settlers, 
whose reminiscences abound with praises of them ; they 
are frequently described as looking like cultivated 
orchards. I-"' The great difficulty with the prairies was 
the total absence of timber; sometimes there was a 
scarcity of good water; and the network of wire-like 
grass roots made the soil very difficult to break. With 
these disadvantages it should be mentioned that the 
soil was sometimes too adhesive to scour the plow, and 
that it was known to produce smut in the wheat; 
moreover, the winter crops were unprotected from 
bleak winds. But despite these disadvantages, which 
seem material, the prairies were preferred by the set- 
tlers who came in from Indiana and Ohio where they 
were used to similar conditions. The timber problem 
was partially solved by building on the forested 

139. Lanman, Michigan, 254, 324. 

140. C. F. Hoffman, A Winter in the West (New York, 1835), I, 

183. 



42 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

margin. The exceeding richness of the soil and its 
freedom from grubs and stones was held to compensate 
for the initial difficulty of breaking it, and the first 
crops raised could usually find a market in the settle- 
m^ents on the neighboring plains and openings. 

The methods of preparing fcr the first crop are in- 
volved in what has been said of the initial difficulties. 
Cutting and burning in the thick timiber, girdling in 
the openings and plains, fcnned the first step. Timber 
for fencing and building was of course reserved. The 
usual breaking time was in June and July. On the 
prairies, little or no cultivation was required after the 
seed was planted in the turned soil. But the easiest 
first crop was to be gotten in the timbered land, where 
it was not too dense. This was generally considered 
the best adventure for the settler with bare ax and 
hoe; he had only to scratch the ground with the hoe 
for either corn or wheat, though the yield of both was 
somewhat slighter than in the other soils. ^^^ 

The yield of first crops varied considerably. Corn 
produced forty bushels to the acre for the first crop 
from timbered land, the prairies yielding fifty bushels. '^^ 
The bottom lands along the streams produced a greater 
yield of corn than the timbered uplands. ^^^ On the 
openings, the first season would yield twelve bushels of 
wheat to the acre.^*'* The comparative increase was 
marked in the yields of successive crops. The prairies 
yielded as high as eighty bushels of corn, and on the 
whole they produced the largest average crops of any 

141. Lanman, Michigan, 322; Blois, Gazetteer, 27. 

142. Lanman, Michigan, 322; Blois, Gazetteer, 25. 
1 13. Lanman, Michigan, 323. 

144. Ibid., 323. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 43 

of the soils. ^■'^ The calcareous soil of the openings in- 
creased its crops as it was cultivated. !•*" In compara- 
tive quickness of yield the timbered land was nearly 
two weeks earlier than the openings. ^^^ 

The cost of getting the first crop if a settler wished 
to pay for it, naturally varied with the difficulties of 
clearing, fencing and cultivating. Reports vary. To 
clear and fence timbered land is said to have cost from 
ten to fifteen dollars per acre; of openings, from ten to 
twelve dollars to clear and plant. ^•'^ Burr-oak plains and 
prairies, if timber were near, cost about ten dollars per 
acre to break and fence. ^-^^ Another report places the 
cost of clearing, fencing, plowing, harrowing and seed- 
ing the plains at eight dollars per acre.^^" The same 
authority reports that "every first crop paid the entire 
expense of each improvement" on these plains, and 
ventures the advice to settlers that it were better to 
pay ten dollars per acre for plains if timber is plentiful 
than one dollar per acre for timbered land. Blois says 
that most crops, especially corn, could be raised to 
perfection in Michigan with often one-half of the labor 
and expense necessary in the East, especially in New 
England. I'^i In favor of Michigan forest lands, after 
the country became known, it was commonly held that 
they had an advantage over similar New York lands in 

145. Blois, Gazetteer, 25. 

146. Ibid., 24. 

147. Lanman, Michigan, 322. 

148. Lanman, Michigan, 254, 322, 323; Blois, Gazetteer, 27. 

149. Lanman, Michigan, 325. 

150. Blois, Gazetteer, 418. This report came from Jackson 

County, apparently about 1837-38. 

151. Blois, Gazetteer, 37. 



44 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

that they did not wear out one generation of settlers 
in becoming subdued to cuhivation. 

The cost of subduing the land was often largely re- 
paid by the natural products useful to the settlers. 
The forests yielded timber for fencing and building, 
and later for manufacturing. Potash was a valuable 
by-product from the clearing, i^- The luxurious wild 
grasses — ^bluejoint, equal to timothy, redtop and wild 
rye — furnished abundant feed for stock. ^^^ Fruits, ber- 
ries, and nuts grew wild in profusion. There were wild 
cherries, apples, plums and pears, cranberries, currents, 
gooseberries, huckleberries, blackberries, raspberries, 
strawberries and wild grapes ;i'^* strawberries are said to 
have been so plentiful in some parts of the openings 
that the cows came home with their hoofs bespattered 
with the juice of the berry. ^^^ The luxurious growths 
of wild grapes along the banks of the Raisin gave that 
river its name. Hickory nuts, walnuts, butternuts and 
hazelnuts may be mentioned, though minor luxuries. 
Sugar was furnished by the sugar-maple, and honey by 
the wild bees; swarms of wild bees were so numerous 
that bee-hunting was made a business b^/ some at the 
proper season. ^^^ In 1835 there was taken from one 

152. Lanman Michigan, 322; Detroit Gazette, May 17, 1822. 

153. Lanman, Michigan, 324; Blois, Gazetteer, 26; Rep. State 

Board of Agriculture (1875), 287-300, gives an account of 
grass and forage plants. There are 139 species of 
grasses and 176 species of sedges indigenous to Michigan. 
Mich. Horticultural Soc. Rep. (1880), 432. 

154. Blois, Gazetteer, 36. 

155. See Branch County in chapter IV, on the St. Joseph Valley; 

also Swan, Journal of a Trip to Michigan in 1841 (Roches- 
ter, 1904), 16, 19, 27, 28, 30; Harriet Martineau, Society 
in America (London, 1837), I, 320-327. 

156. Blois, Gazetteer, 35. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS • 45 

tree, a large whitewood, a hundred pounds of honey ;^" 
a stimulating drink was made from honey, well-known 
to pioneers. 1^^ 

The animals helpful to settlers were many. Wild 
game abounded almost at the settler's door. The deer, 
the bear, the rabbit, the hare and the squirrel were 
very numerous. Deerskin and bearskin afforded ma- 
terial for clothing, along with the fur of the beaver, the 
otter, the muskrat, the minl<:, the martin, the fisher and 
the raccoon. All these were saleable; martin furs early 
sold on the market for from one to two dollars apiece. ^^^ 
Of the forest game fowls, there were the partridge, quail, 
woodcock, grouse, pigeon and wild turkey. ^^° Aquatic 
game fowls are said to have literally covered the in- 
land lakes at certain seasons, the duck and the goose 
being most prized. Migratory song birds gave charm 
to life in the forest. 

It is true that some species of flora and fauna were 
drawbacks to the settlers. This was specially true of 
some of the fauna. Some animals were a serious men- 
ace to stock, poultry and crops. The squeal of a pig 
frequently meant the presence of the black bear, whose 
capture gave rise to favorite pioneer stories. The howl- 
ing of the wolf dismayed many a newly arrived immi- 
grant belated in the forest. Wildcats were not pleasant 
acquaintances, but they were less numerous in the 
southern than in the northern part of the peninsula. 

157. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 507. 

158. Ibid., 507. 

159. Ibid., VIII, 258; see D. Goss, History of Grand Rapids (Chi- 

cago, 1906), I, 56-57, for the early prices of furs there. 

160. Blois, Gazetteer, 34. 



46 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Crops, especially corn, frequently siiifered from the 
cutworm, the squirrel and the blackbird.^" 

The mosquito was a lively pest, and the carrier of 
disease. Rare stories are told about them by pioneers, 
almost equaling the bear stories in number and size. 
One settler after describing the Indians records his 
memory of the mosquito. He says: 

"Another native of the woods was the blood-thirsty 
savages — the mosquitoes. They were the most trouble- 
some of all the animals that infested the woods . . . 
They would light upon your nose and suffer you to 
kill them; while they died like a martyr at the stake. 
Their attacks were heralded by a flourish of trumpets 
or long trombones, when they would come down upon 
you in squads and hordes, ad infinitum. A settler re- 
lates his attempt to go through a belt of heavy tim- 
bered land, but ere he had advanced twenty rods, he 
was so beset with these bloodthirsty imps that after 
giving them battle with a bush for a while, he was com- 
pelled to beat a retreat, badly demoralized. "^^^ 

Mosquitoes infested especially low wet places, the 
vicinity of marshes and streams, the moist forest and 
newly plowed land. It is as the carrier of disease that 
the mosquito has its main significance for settlement, 
and the accounts left by settlers, even by pioneer 
doctors, show that its function in this respect was not 
understood. As above explained, malaria was univer- 
sally attributed to the decay of vegetation caused by 
turning the soil. The greater assurance was felt in 
this as the correct cause on account of the greater pre- 

161. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 365; IX, 126. 

162. Ibid., V, 251. 



PHYSICAL CONDITIONS 47 

valence of the disease in the plowing season and its 
gradual disappearance as the country became settled. 
Very probably, the turning of the cool moist soil to the 
surface especially in the vicinity of the marshes, was 
one of the conditions of the increase of mosquitoes in 
the neighborhood. 

Michigan afforded conditions for all types of settlers. 
There was abundant opportunity for capital, but there 
was opportunity for the poor man. It was this opportu- 
nity that made Michigan appeal especially to the small 
farmers and the "hired hands" in New York and New 
England, who with gun, ax and team, 'driving with their 
families overland, making their clearings in the forest 
or the openings, were ultimately to give to Michigan 
its strong prosperous middle-class of farmers. The gen- 
eral spirit of settlement was one of satisfaction, as re- 
flected in a toast given at Ann Arbor in 1831 at a 
Fourth of July celebration, "The Territory of Michigan, 
the Yankee's land of promise, flowing with milk and 
honey. "^''^ 

Yet undoubtedly this picture could be too easily 
colored. Hardships were many, even with all the ad- 
vantages provided by nature ; and to each rule of the 
general beneficence there were many exceptions. As 
one pioneer records: 

"There was the failure of seed corn, and messengers 
sent the long journey to Ohio to obtain a further su]^ ply ; 
there were late spring frosts cutting down the corn flat 
with the ground; there were excessive cold and snow 
in winter, floods and heat in the summer, a want of the 

163. Michigan Pcl'txal Science Asscc'ation, PiihUcatioy.s, IV, 
523. 



48 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

simplest medicines, of mills to grind grain for food, of 
salt to preserve their meat, while there was an abun- 
dance of malarial diseases to break down their strength, 
of pestiferous wild animals to destroy their flocks, and 
rumors of Indian horrors and Indian wars, to keep 
them fearful in daytime and awake at night. One who 
truly weighs the courage and fortitude with which these 
men, women and children met the dangers and hard- 
ships of their pioneer life will hardly after attribute to 
the soldier a^^monoply of those qualities. "i""*. 

164. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 630. 



CHAPTER II 

General Influences 

/^NE of the most important influences in the settle- 
ment of Michigan Territory was the war of 1812. 
Its effects were both good and ill ; temporarily it was a 
serious drawback. Fear of the Indians practically de- 
populated the territory during the war, and the settlers 
returning found their homes in ruins. ^ The scarcity of 
money was a serious embarrassment both to business 
and to intending settlers; the general stagnation of 
business is said to have resembled that which followed 
the crisis of 1837 1^ the Detroit Gazette of August 9, 
1822, contains a typical example of thp many com- 
plaints against the continued scarcity of money and the 
low price of grain. On the other hand, one good effect 
of the war was to attract attention to Michigan through 
the prominent part taken by Detroit. It made evident 
the military need of better roads, ^ and led directly to 
the first improvements connecting Detroit with the 
Ohio valley. Again, many soldiers from Ohio, Ken- 

1. W. L. G. Smith, Life and times of Lewis Cass, 107 ; fournal of 

the Legislative Council, 1826, p. 6; American State Papers: 
Military Affairs, I, 510; Detroit Journal and Michigan 
Advertiser, April 4, 1832, giving a report of a select com- 
mittee of Congress on the losses of Michigan during the 
war. 

2. Mich. Hist. Colls., I., 381. 

3. News of the Battle of Tippecanoe on the Wabash just before 

the outbreak of the war, November 7, 1811, was not re- 
ceived at Detroit until a month later. American State 
Papers: Indian Affairs, 1, 780. 

7 



50 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tucky, Pennsylvania, and Virginia who had fought on 
the Michigan frontier remained in the Territory as set- 
tlers and wrote to friends in the East about the oppor- 
tunities afforded;^ one of these was Lewis Cass, who as 
governor of Michigan Territory from 1813 to 1831 used 
his great energies to promote its settlement.^ 

An indirect result of the War of 1812 was the un- 
favorable report, widely circulated, about Michigan 
lands. In 1815 Edward Tiffin, surveyor general for the 
Northwest, reported to the National Government that 
there "would not be more than one acre out of a hun- 
dred, if there would be one out of a thousand that 
would, in any case, admit of cultivation;" for, he said, 
"the intermediate space between the swamps and lakes, 
which is probably nearly one half of the country, is, 
with a very few exceptions, a poor barren, sandy land, 
on which scarcely any vegetation grows, except very 
small scrubby oaks."^ The purpose of the survey upon 
which this report was based was to promote the early 
disposition of the Michigan bounty lands authorized by 
Congress for compensation to the soldiers of the war.'^ 
The surveyors may have been influenced, at least in- 

4. F. J. Turner, "The colonization of the West, 1820-1830," in 

American Historical Review, XI, 307; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXIII, 482. 

5. A. C. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass (Boston, 1891), 127-129; J. 

H. Lanman, Michigan, 236. 

6. American State Papers: Public Lands, III, 164-165. 

7. Statutes at Large, 1, 728-730. For the relation of Cass to 

this survey, see McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 94-95; A. C. 
McLaughlin, "The Influence of Governor Cass on the 
Development of the Northwest" in American Historical 
Association, Papers, III, 315; T. M. Cooley, Michigan 
(Boston, 1885), 193. For newspaper characterization of 
the Tiffin report, see an editorial in the Detroit Gazette for 
July 24, 1818. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 51 

directly, by the unfavorable report made by Monroe to 
Jefferson prior to the organization of the Northwest 
Territory, who after reconnoitering in parts of the 
Northwest wrote: "A great part of the Territory is 
miserably poor, especially that near the Lakes Michi- 
gan and Erie. . . The districts, therefore, within 
which these fall will never contain a sufficient number 
of inhabitants to entitle them to membership in the 
confederacy."^ 

As a result of the Tiffin report President Madison re- 
commended to Congress, that since the lands in Michi- 
gan were covered with swamps and lakes or were other- 
wise so unfit for cultivation that only a small propor- 
tion could be applied to the intended grants, other 
lands should be designated to take the place of Michi- 
gan's proportion of the military bounty lands ;3 accord- 
ingly, three-fo\u:ths of that amount were ordered to be 
surveyed in the rival state of Illinois. i*' The Govern- 
ment's disfavor towards Michigan lands doubtless be- 
came widely known, as the newspapers of the day em- 
phasized the doings of Congress, and many eastern 
people were then specially anxious to know about the 
West. School geographies contained maps with the 
words 'Tnterminable Swamp" across the interior of 
Michigan. 11 Morse's Geography, which was considered 
an authority and was widely used, featured this idea 
until a late period. ^^ Morse's Traveller' s Guide repre- 

8. J. Monroe, Writings (S. M. Hamilton, ed.— New York, 1898) 

I, 117. 

9. Special message of February 6, 1816. 

10. Statutes at Large, III, 332. 

11. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 381 ; XXII, 542. 

12. Cooley, Michigan, 192-193. 



52 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

sented sand hills "extending into the interior as far as 
the dividing ridge . . . sometimes crowned with a 
few stunted trees, and a scanty vegetation, but gen- 
erally bare, anid thrown by the wind into a thousand 
fantastic shapes." ^^^ 

The immediate effects upon settlement were of course 
unfavorable. The traveler William Darby, writing 
from Detroit in August, 1818, says that during more 
than a month in which he had been traveling between 
Geneva (New York) and Detroit, he had seen hundreds 
going west, but "not one in fifty with the intention of 
settling in Michigan Territory." ^^ For the time being 
the tide of immigration turned aside 'from Michigan 
with its "interminable swamp" and "sand hills" and 
favored Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. 

One of the earliest and strongest influences to coun- 
teract these reports was the Lewis Cass expedition of 
1820. Cass warmly critised the Tiffin report, writing to 
the Government that the lands of Michigan had been 
"grossly misrepresented" 15 Upon his motion new sur- 
veys were begun in the vicinity of Detroit in 1816 and 
public sales were opened for the surveyed portion in 
1818. In the same year an exploring party apparently 
under his auspices dispelled illusions about the country 
back of Detroit. 1'^ In 1819 national aid was secured for 
an extended examination of the soil, minerals, and In- 

13. J. Morse, Traveller s Gtiide (New Haven, 1826), 169. 

14. W. Darby, A Tour from the City of New-York to Detroit in the 

Michigan Territory. . . 1818 (New York, 1819), 200. 

15. McLaughlin, "Influence of Cass on the Development of the 

Northwest," 347. 

16. See an article in the Detroit Gazette for July 18, 1823, refer- 

ring to the exploration of 1818 in the rear of Detroit, at- 
tributing the enterprise largely to the interest of Cass. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 53 

dian conditions over a route of some five thousand 
miles through the interior, accompHshed in 1820.^^ 
The result gave to men vitally connected with the 
government of the Territory and influential with the 
National Government a first-hand knowledge of the 
region where the Tiffin surveyors were supposed to 
have worked, and impressed upon them more firmly a 
lesson of the War of 1812, the need of a national mili- 
tary road between Detroit and Chicago. Since the ex- 
pedition was made partly under national auspices, its 
report had a semiofficial character; the interest which 
it excited is indicated by the sale within thirty days of 
the entire edition of Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative 
published in 1821 at Albany, which is said to have 
found its way to Europe. ^^ 

Accounts of travel through Michigan preceding 
Cass's expedition were on the whole too general to have 
much influence with settlers, yet there were some 
exceptions. Estwick Evans wrote in his Pedestrious 
Tour in 1818: 'Tn travelling more than four thousand 

17. Smith, Life and Times of Lewis Cass, contains much of the 

preliminary correspondence with Calhoun, then secretary 
of war, about the expedition. The official journal of the 
expedition kept by James Duane Doty, secretary of the 
Territorial legislature of Michigan, is contained in Wis- 
consin Historical Collections, XIII, 163 et seq. See also 
Henry R. Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative of an Explora- 
tory Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River in 
1820 (Albany, 1821). Good brief accounts may be found 
in McLaughlin's Lewis Cass, 115-119; J. V. Campbell, 
Outlines of the Political History of Michigan (Detroit, 
. 1876} , 400-404 ; W. T. Young, Sketch of the Life and Public 
Services of General Lewis Cass (Detroit, 1852), 85-88; 
Detroit Gazette, May 26, 1820. 

18. Outlines of the Life and Character of General Lewis Cass 

(Albany, 1848), 24. 



54 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

miles, in the western parts of the United States, I met 
no tract of country which, upon the whole, impressed 
my mind so favorably as the Michigan Territory. . . 
The soil of the territory is generally fertile, and a con- 
siderable proportion of it is very rich."^^ Of "Travels" 
before 1837 the most important for the correction of 
false impressions about Michigan were those of Mc- 
Kenney, Hoffman, and Martineau. Some of the early 
guidebooks for travelers and settlers were very favor- 
able to Michigan. An important one of these was by 
Samuel R. Brown, published at Auburn, New York, in 
1817; in 1820 there appeared in London an anonymous 
Guide for English emigrants to A merica obviously based 
upon it. 20 

Newspaper articles favorable to Michigan early found 
their way through the eastern press. For example, the 

19. E. Evans, Pedestrious Tour, 119, quoted from R. G. 

Thwaites, Early Western Travels (Cleveland, 1904-1907), 
VIII, 220. Evans' work was published at Concord, New 
Hampshire, in 1819. 

20. The English Guide gives to Ohio thirty-five pages, to Indiana 

nineteen, to Michigan ten, and to Illinois nine. Com- 
pare pages 688, 689, 694 respectively with pages 155, 
156-157, and 165 in S. R. Brown, The Western Gazetteer 
(Auburn, 1817). See also J. Melish's A Geographical 
description of the United States (Philadelphia, 1818), 137, 
where the climate is described as "temperate and healthy" 
and the soil "generally rich and fertile." The ignorance 
of the interior is revealed by the statement that "in the 
center, the land is high, from whence there is a descent 
in all directions;" and an equal poverty of knowledge is 
revealed in the articles in the Detroit Gazette prior to 
1820, which, while they try to favor the lands, are limited 
in descriptive matter to those close to the eastern shore. 
See for another instance the ntunbers of November 21, 
1817, May 7 and 14, November 26, and December 3, 
1819. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 55 

New York Spectator is quoted in the Detroit Gazette of 
March 21, 1823, as saying in regard to the belief that 
Michigan offered favorable opportunities to emigrants: 
"Perhaps no stronger argument can be urged in support 
of this belief than merely to state the fact that a barrel 
of potashes, flour, or other produce can be transported 
from Detroit to Buffalo with as little expense through 
Lake Erie as a like quantity can be transported by land 
in the western part of this state to the canal from 
places which lie twenty-five or thirty miles from the 
canal route." -^ The motive which actuated at least 
some New York papers is seen in the following quota- 
tion from the Buffalo Journal (1825) : When it is con- 
sidered that all the fruits of that vast region are to 
reach the sea coast by Lake Erie and the New York 
Canal (the junction of whose waters is formed in our 
village) and that the corresponding returns of goods are 
to reach their destination by the same route, we. may 
naturally be supposed to look with some degree of 
rapture on the present growth and increasing popula- 
tion of Michigan." 22 

By about 1825 the effects of the Tiffin report in the 
East had begun to wane. That year is marked by the 
appearance of John Farmer's maps and gazetteers of 
Michigan, published at Detroit, which it is said had by 
1830 reached a demand in the local markets of Boston, 
Providence, Hartford, New York, Baltimore, Phila- 
delphia, Washington, Albany, Rochester, Buffalo, 

21. See other quotations in the Detroit Gazette for May 4, 1821; 

June 7, 1822; July 18, 1823; and September 19, 1823. 

22. Quoted in the Detroit Gazette, September 20, 1825. 



56 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Cleveland, and Erie, that could hardly be supplied. ^^ 
Many copies of the Detroit Gazette, founded at De- 
troit in 1817, had found their way to the East.^^ Other 
counter-influences were letters from successful pioneers, 
published in eastern papers, reports made by settlers 
revisiting their old homes in the East, the circulars of 
land speculators, and not least the later reports of the 
United States surveyors and their personal interest in 
promoting settlement. New editions of Morse's Geog- 
raphy were favorable to Michigan. -^ There is evidence 
in shipments of flour from Michigan to the East as early 
as 1833 and in the increase of population shown by the 
censuses of 1830, 1834, and 1837 that by the date of 
Michigan's admission to the Union the popular opinion 
about her lands had been fairly reversed. 

23. S. Famier, History of Detroit and Michigan (Detroit, 1890), 

I, 335, 698. There is a photograph of the John Farmer 
map of 1826 m Mich. Hist. Colls., vol. XXXVIII, op- 
posite p. 636. A little while before appeared Orange 
Risdon's map, a copy of which is in the same volume, 
opposite p. 635. Risdon published much of his data, 
obtained by travel in the Territory in 1823, in several 
eastern newspapers, according to the Detroit Gazette, 
January 16, 1824. Another map of about this time was 
made by Philu E. Judd, of which a copy is in the same 
volume opposite p. 634. The making of these maps is 
indicative of the new impulse to immigration which came 
about the time of the opening of the Erie Canal. 

24. Other Detroit newspapers of the period were the Michigan 

Herald, the Courier, the Journal and Courier, the North- 
western Journal, the Free Press, the Daily Advertiser, and 
the Journal and Michigan Advertiser. For a list of Mich- 
igan newspapers for this period with critical comment see 
Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 670-677. An account of 
the Detroit Gazette is given on pp. 671-672. The issue of 
the Detroit Gazette for November 21, 1823, states that 
six copies are sent weekly to subscribers in Washington. 

25. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 480-481. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 57 

Along with the unfavorable reports about lands had 
gone ill-tidings of the continued Indian depredations. 
The massacres at the River Raisin and at Fort Dearborn 
had impressed especially the minds of women and child- 
ren, and in 1832 the Black Hawk war caused rumors of 
a possible invasion of Michigan and of a rising of the 
Indians. 26 It would be true to human nature to sup- 
pose that these fears and desires would often cause the 
head of a family to hesitate about emigrating to 
Michigan; but in reality the spirit of the Michigan In- 
dians was cowed by the American success in the recent 
war, and their ferocity had largely burned out. The 
Detroit Gazette attempted to allay fears by setting forth 
the groundlessness of the prevalent anticipations of re- 
newed Indian hostilities." 

The relation of the National Government with the 
Michigan Indians was complicated by several things: 
by their dissatisfaction with the treaty of 1807, by their 
recent alliance with the British against the Americans, 
and by the belief of the Indians in the power and gen- 
erosity of the British because of the continued distribu- 

26. Ihid. 

27. See editorial for April 3, 1818; also a good general descrip- 

tion of ■ the character and condition of the Indians of 
eastern Michigan, by a comtemporary, in the Gazette, 
February 8, 1822. For relations of the settlers and the 
Indians, see Harriet Martineau, Society in America, I, 329; 
II, 25. Detroit Gazette, May 29, 1818, June 11, 1819; 
Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 655-658; report of the sur- 
veyors of the Chicago Road, Detroit Gazette, March 18 
and 25, 1825. For the civil status of the Indian and his 
relation to the states of the Union, see decisions cited in 
T. Donaldson's Public Domain (Washington, 1881), 240. 



58 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tion of large quantities of presents among them;-^ in 
1829 sixty tons of presents were distributed in which 
the Michigan Indians shared. ^^ This pohcy appears to 
have been followed as late as 1839, in attempts to de- 
feat the American treaties with the Indians. ^'^ The sit- 
uation required a government agent of great patience 
and tact who thoroughly understood the Indian char- 
acter and who should have a genuine sympathetic in- 
terest. Lewis Cass possessed these qualifications in a 
marked degree, and in his capacity as Indian agent he 
rendered exceptional services to the settlement of Mich- 
igan, negotiating a score of treaties. ^^ 

The Indian title to the lower peninsula was with 
slight exceptions extinguished by four treaties, those of 
1807, 1819, 1821, and 1836. The so-called treaty of 
Detroit (1807) ceded southeastern Michigan, west as 
far as the principal meridian and north as far as a line 
running from a point on the western boundary of the 
present Shiawassee County northeasterly to White 

28. See a statement by Cass to the Secretary of War, October 

21, 1820, in Schoolcraft's Summary Narrative, 280. The 
Indians are represented as generally friendly, but less so as 
the point of contact with the British is approached. See 
accounts of their visits to Maiden in the Detroit Gazette, 
November 21, 1823; August 2, 1825. The latter con- 
tains a long editorial on the policy of the British. 

29. McLaughlin, "Influence of Cass on the Development of the 

Northwest", 323. 

30. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 108, 110. 

31. Smith, Life and times of Lewis Cass, 128-130; American Statd 

Papers: Indian Affairs, II, 224; Schoolcraft, Summary 
Narrative, 79-80; R. B. Ross and G. B. Catlin, Landmarks 
of Detroit (Detroit, 1898); L. M. Mathews, Expansion of 
New England {Boston, 1909), 231; Bureau of American 
Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, pt. 2, passim. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 59 

Rock on Lake Huron. 3- In 1819 the treaty of Saginaw 
ceded a large part of central Michigan including the re- 
mainder of the Saginaw region and extending as far 
north as the headwaters of the Thunder Bay River. ^^ 
Practically all the land still remaining south of Grand 
River was ceded by the treaty of Chicago in 1821/^ 
and nearly all remaining north of it by the treaty of 
Washington in 1836.^5 In these treaties numerous 
small pieces of land were reserved to the Indian tribes 
and some grants were made to individuals of Indian 
descent. 36 The reservations were ceded as settlement 
pressed upon them, and the tribal Indians were re- 
moved to western reservations about 1840." 



32. Ibid., 674. Prior to this time there had been in the hands of 

the Government only a narrow strip six miles wide along 
the water front, extending from the Raisin to the vicinity 
of Lake St. Clair, which was ceded in 1795. Ibid. 654. 

33. The southern boundary of the cession extended west from 

the prime meridian to the vicinity of Kalamazoo. Bur- 
eau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 
pt. 2, 698. 

34. Ibid., 702. 

35. Ibid., 756. For the principal minor treaties affecting the 

lower peninsula, see ibid., 699, 740, 764, and the Ameri- 
can State Papers: Indian Affairs, II, 72, 131, 677. The 
former contains colored plates showing the areas of the 
different cessions. There is a fairly accurate map show- 
ing the four larger cessions in Mich. Hist. Colls., vol. 
XXVI, opposite p. 275. 

36. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 

pt. 2, 702; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 291. 

37. See report of Henry R. Schoolcraft, Acting Superintendent 

of Indian Affairs, on the removal of the Indians from 
Michigan, in Michigan Joint Document (1841), No. 1, pp. 
61-86. The question of removal was advocated by Isaac 
McCoy, of the Baptist mission near Niles, from the time 
white settlement began to encroach upon the mission. 
See his statement of the motives of removal in his History 
of the Baptist Indian Missions (Washington, 1840), 265, 



60 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The most serious check upon settlement due to the 
Indians since the War of 1812 came from an uprising of 
the Sacs and Foxes under Black Hawk in 1832. ^^ The 
Indians had just passed over the Chicago Trail home- 
ward bound from Maiden, where they had received 
their annual presents from the British, among other 
things arms and ammunition. The circumstances sug- 
gested to Michigan settlers that as a natural maneuver 
the Indians would retreat along the Chicago Road into 
Canada for a safer base of operations, in which case 
there might be expected depredations along the road, 
and possibly an uprising of the Potawatomi. Memories 
of Indian horrors spread panic, especially among the 
women and children. Travel on the road fell off 
rapidly and intending settlers turned to Ohio.^'-* A let- 
ter from a militia leader written in 1832 from White 
Pigeon in St. Joseph County, says: "The injury done 
to this part of the Territory by the exaggerated reports 
of danger from the hostile bands of Indians will not be 
cured for two years to come, and the unnecessary 
movements of our militia are calculated to spread far 
and near this alarm," Michigan militia were mustered 
at Niles but they did not leave Michigan; Black Hawk 
was defeated and captured by the United States troops 

38. There is a brief, judicial account of the Black Hawk war in 

Magazine of Western History, 5. 

39. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI 239; XVIII, 606; XXX, 456. H. P. 

Collin, A Twentieth Century History and Biographical 
Record oj Branch County, Michigan (Chicago, 1906), 
27, 29. 

321, 323. See also an article by Lewis Cass on removal 
of Indians, in the North American Review for January, 
1830 (XXX, 62-121). 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 61 

before he reached Chicago, when the resistance of his 
followers collapsed/'' 

But the results of this outbreak for the settlement of 
Michigan were not wholly bad. Accounts of the "war" 
in newspapers, pamphlets, and books called attention 
to the country occupied by the Sac and Fox Indians 
westward from Michigan, and the summary way in 
which the National Government demonstrated its con- 
trol of the Indians gave to intending settlers, renewed 
assurance — especially to foreigners, whose imaginations 
had exaggerated the danger from the Indians. ^^ 

The influence of the Black Hawk war is not easy to 
separate from that of the cholera epidemic of the same 
year. It was probably the cholera as much as fear of 
the Indians that checked travel on the Chicago Road.''^ 
A large part of the troops under Scott which were sent 
against Black Hawk died of cholera in and about De- 
troit; others, panic stricken, deserted; it is estimated 
that half of the entire force died.^^ The ravages else- 
where in Michigan seem to have been equally severe. 
Many settlements established armed guards, allowing 
no one to pass in or out; fences were built across the 
roads from Detroit and travelers were halted at the 
point of the gun.'*'* 

40. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 234, 235. 

41. H. F. Thomas, History of Allegan County (Chicago, 1907), 31. 

42. Collin, History of Branch County, 30. There was a repeti- 

tion of the epidemic in 1834, making a combination of 
influences that was felt even after 1835. These epidemics 
spread westward from Asia, reaching Michigan through 
Canada. 

43. Campbell, Political History of Michigan, 440. 

44. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 169; Farmer, History of Detroit, 

I, 49; Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 380-382; 
Detroit Free Press, July 19, 1832. 



62 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

A very important task of the National Government 
in the interests of settlement,, for which the extinction 
of Indian titles and the military protection of the fron- 
tier were preliminary, was the survey and sale of lands. 
Cass had accompanied his criticism of the Tiffin survey 
with urgent advice to the Government for an immediate 
surveying of lands in the vicinity of Detroit and the 
establishing of a land office as soon as the surveys 
should advance far enough. A petition, circulated at 
his instance and signed by prominent men in the Terri- 
tory in 1818, secured the Government's attention, and 
public sales were opened in that year.''^ By 1818 two 
years of work on the new surveys had made practically 
all the land in the present eastern shore counties ready 
for the market ;^^ by 1821 more than two and a quarter 
millions of acres had been surveyed ; and a decade later 
the survey was completed for about ten million acres 

45 Smith, Life and times of Lewis Cass, 113; McLaughlin, "In- 
fluence of Cass on the Development of the Northwest," 
318; McLaughhn, Lewis Cass, 96. For phases of the 
land question prior to 1818, see American State Papers: 
Public Lands, I, 248, 267-269, 282. 

46. For brief descriptions of the rectangular system of survey in 
Michigan, see Tackabury's Atlas, 6-7; Blois, Gazetteer, 
65-70. Besides its obvious importance in enabling set- 
tlers to 'ocate their lands, this system had significance for 
local government. The base line in Michigan follows 
along the northern boundary of Wayne County due west 
and forms the boundary between counties throughout its 
entire length. At distances of twenty-four miles on each 
side, other parallels form similar boundaries throughout 
most of their length. Eastern and western county 
boundaries are formed by meridians running at right 
angles, in many cases making counties almost exact 
squares. Similarly, parallels and meridians divide the 
counties into squares of six miles on a side, forming 
"Government townships," which in most cases have be- 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 63 

of the seventeen and a half iiiilHon that had been ceded 
to the Government.*^ 

As the surveys advanced and more land was ready 
for the market, new land offices were established; at 
Monroe in 1823, at White Pigeon in 1831, at Kalama- 
zoo in 1834, and at Flint and Ionia in 1836. The first 
represents a movemxcnt of population into the country 
of the Raisin River Valley, the second out along the 
Chicago Road, the third along the Territorial Road, 
the fourth into the Saginaw Valley, the fifth into the 
Grand River region. "^ The opening of the land office 
at Kalamazoo in 1834 marks the beginning of a new 
period in the settlement of western Michigan. ^^ 

The laws regulating the sales of land in Michigan be- 
fore 1820 were not conducive to the best interests of 
settlement. The claims of the squatter were not only 
not recognized, but his land and improvements were 
legally liable to forfeiture.^" The settler of small means 
was at a decided disadvantage, since the lands were sold 
only in comparatively large parcels and at auction to 

47. American State Papers: Public Lands, III, 533 ; Historical and 

Scientific Sketches of Michigan (Detroit, 1834), 165. The 
field notes of the surveyors, deposited at Lansing in 1857 
upon the completion of the survey of Michigan, are of 
first importance for early physiographic conditions. 

48. For jurisdiction see Blois, Gazetteer, 71-73; Detroit Gazette, 

July 18, 1823; Risdon's map of Michigan (1825). 

49. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 612. 

50. Magazine of Western History, VI, 397. 

come units for township governments. This result was 
secured by the policy of following the township lines in 
establishing the original areas for township government, 
however unequal these areas, which makes easier the use 
of the organization of township government to measure, 
in a general way, comparative rates of settlement in 
different areas. 



64 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the highest bidder. The fact that land could be 
bought on credit encouraged speculation, and the best 
land would tend to go into the hands of a few men of 
large actual or prospective means. The family man of 
small means with intention to settle was not likely to 
speculate even on credit, since his death or the defer- 
ment of payments for other reasons would forfeit both 
lands and improvements. He was more likely to wait 
his chance at the expiration of the given term of sale 
when the unsold lands would be put on the market at 
two dollars an acre, fifty cents at the time of entry and 
the balance in one, two, and three years, with interest. ^^ 
In order to avoid the cost and difficulties of collecting 
arrears, to check speculation, to open the best land on 
equal terms to all, to avoid the poor man's having to 
forfeit lands for deferred payments and to enable him 
to buy in small parcels, the credit system was by act of 
Congress (1820) to be discontinued i^^ qW lands were to 

51. Donaldson, Public Domain, 203-205; History of Oakland 

County (Philadelphia, 1876), 130; Detroit Gazette, May 8, 
1818. 

52. Statutes at Large, III, 566. See a monograph by Enierich, 

on "The Credit System and the Public Domain," in 
Vanderbilt Southern Historical Society, Publications, No. 
3, quoted by Mr. Turner in "The Colonization of the 
West," in American Historical Review, XI, 313, n. 2. 
The Detroit Gazette of September 24, 1819, hints at a 
condition which may have stimulated the repeal of the 
credit system. A writer, signing himself "Franklin" sug- 
gests that the immense indebtedness of the people of the 
West to the Government for the land, due to the credit 
system, may form cause for separation from the Union 
to escape the debt ; especially if the people are shown that 
the original states had no right to the land, and that the 
West is eminently fitted for independence. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 65 

be sold at $1.25 the acre, and in parcels as small as 
eighty acres. 

It still remained to give legal protection to the squat- 
ter. The squatter was the extreme advance guard of set- 
tlement whose services often took the keen edge from 
the hardships of later comers accustomed to the settled 
life of an old community. In a rude way, by a custom 
that had the effect of law, the squatters instituted a 
degree of self -protection. A settler who would dis- 
regard the right of a squatter to purchase his claim 
when it came on the market would soon find it un- 
pleasant to stay in the community. ^^ g^t the specu- 
lator was not easily made amendable to this custom 
and often took advantage of his immunity to beat the 
squatter out of a home. Congressional attention to 
this abuse began effectively with the preemption act of 
1830.^4 

It would be expected, under the influence of the Erie 
Canal, the acceleration of steam navigation on Lake 
Erie, and the survey of the Chicago Road, that sales 
would rapidly increase from 1825 to 1830. What took 
place was quite the opposite ;^5 the sales at the Detroit 

53. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 424; L. H. Glover, A Twentieth Cen- 

tury History oj Cass County, Michigan (Chicago, 1906), 
107. 

54. Donaldson, Public Domain, 214, 215. There is a brief treat- 

ment of "The national preemption system," in Magazine 
of Western History, VI, 396-399. 

55. The amounts of sale for the whole Territory from 1830-1834 

were: 1831: 252,211.44 acres; 1832: 316,081.89 acres; 
1833: 447,780.17 acres; 1834: 351,951.32 acres. {Ameri- 
can State Papers: Public Lands, VI, 628; VII, 329-330.) 
The Detroit Gazette of June 20, 1826, attributes the fall- 
ing off in amount of purchases in 1826 to hard times in 
9 



66 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

land office may be taken as typical. In 1820 there 
were sold at that office 2,860 acres; sales ran rapidly up 
from 7,444 acres in 1821 to 20,068 in 1822; the increase 
continued until in 1825 they reached 92,332 acres. 
From this point there was a steady falling off until 
1830, when 70,441 acres were sold. But with a sud- 
den impulse sales mounted in the following year to 
217,943 acres. Then, probably under the influence of 
the Black Hawk war and the epidemics of cholera in 
1832 and 1834, there was a gradual decline. But again, 
in 1835 sales suddenly leaped to 405,331 acres, and in 
1836 to nearly one and a half million acres. ^^ In the 
year 1835-36 Michigan shared in a phenomenon of 
increased land sales that was national in extent. The 
largest total of sales was made in Michigan." This 
seems plausibly explained by the comparatively small 
amount of land remaining unsold in the older areas, 
and by the comparatively slight knowledge of lands 
farther west ; also by the stage of Michigan's settlement, 
her lands being accessible with comparative ease and 
well enough known to be properly valued. ^^ 

There was undoubtedly a large element of specula- 
tion in these purchases even before 1835. According to 

56. Blois, Gazetteer, 74; J. P. MacCabe, Directory of the City of 

Detroit (Detroit, 1837), 86. The amount of sales given 
by Blois for 1833 is obviously a typographical error. 

57. Donaldson, Ptiblic Domain, 215, 216; R. Adams, "Agricul- 

ture in Michigan," in Michigan Political Science Associa- 
tion, Publications, III, 173. 

58. Ibid. 

55. Con. the East, which made it difficult for intending emigrants 
to convert their produce and property into ready money. 
A retardation of immigration due to this cause was antic- 
ipated in the same paper May 23, 1826. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 67 

an apparently authoritative account speculation had 
reached only "a gentle breeze" in 1834, but increased 
"to a gale in 1835, to a storm in 1836, to a change of 
wind and an adverse tornado in 1837."^^ A serious 
financial crisis as a result of Jackson's financial policy 
appears to have been anticipated in Michigan as early 
as 1833. "We regret to find," says the editor of the 
Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, November 27, 
"that a general feeling of apprehension is felt and ex- 
pressed by the city papers, of serious embarrassment 
in the money market." Other editorial protests and 
prophecies followed.^'' But money, in bank notes," be- 
came as plentiful as "strawberries in June"^^ and every- 
body continued to seem prosperous. Banks were 
chartered at all the principal centers of settlement and 
increased in number rapidly after the general banking 
law of 1837.^^ Under this law, which among other 
things provided "that whenever any person or persons, 
resident of this State, shall be desirous of establishing 
a bank, such person or persons shall be at liberty to 
meet without interruption, open books and subscribe 
to the capital stock of such bank," much unscrupulous 
swindling appears to have taken place. Many banks 
whose promoters had little or no intention of redeem- 

59. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 174. 

60. For example, the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, 

April 9, 1834; the Detroit Journal and Courier, Septem- 
ber 12, 1835. 

61. See description of the "financial zoology" of the time — wild 

cat, red dog, etc. — in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190; and His- 
tory of Hillsdale County (Philadelphia, 1880), 41. 

62. See Harriet Martineau's experience, Jime, 1836, in Society 

in America, I, 327. 

63. Session Laws, 1838, p. 24. 



68 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ing their notes were^ set up at points difficult to reach 
or to find; capital was often not paid in; notes were 
issued in gross excess; security was frequently poor, or 
not furnished; and the bank inspectors were imposed 
upon by all sorts of trickery. '^■^ 

The crisis was precipitated in the East by the issue of 
Jackson's specie circular on July 11, 1836, and the effect 
was not long in reaching Michigan. The Detroit Daily 
Advertiser of October 15 observes that "the banks of 
Detroit do not discount the best paper which is offered. 
This has been the case for several months past." Pub- 
lic officers were authorized by the circular to receive 
only coin ; bank notes therefore would not buy Govern- 
ment land. But the real crisis came when Michigan 
banks in 1837 began to suspend specie payments''^ ^^d 
rapidly to fail. Bank notes became so valueless that in 
grim humor some investors who but a little while be- 
fore were supposedly rich used them for wall paper. ^^ 
Land became a drug on the market and panic prices 
prevailed." The laboring and farming classes appear 
to have been the heaviest losers, not having the means 
to keep abreast of news regarding the condition of the 

64. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 160. See also ibid., XXXII, 

254; Magazine of Western History, III, 202; Cooley, Mich- 
igan, 268-269; Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 439. 

65. H. M. Utley and B. M. Cutcheon, Michigan as Province, 

Territory and State (New York, 1906), III, 88. 

66. According to tradition, Louis Campau of Grand Rapids 

papered the cupola of his house with them saying: "If 
you won't circulate, you shall stay still." Mich. Hist. 
Colls., XXX, 294. See also ibid., XXII, 547. 

67. Ibid., XXXVIII, 368-369; History of Hillsdale County 

(Phila., 1879), 42. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES ' 69 

banks. '^^ But the crisis was not an unmixed evil for 
settlement. The immense speculations and immigra- 
tions of the period, stimulated by easy money, had 
brought great numbers of settlers before the crash 
came who still remained to aid the new State to recover 
from disaster, and to help build a prosperous common- 
wealth. 

Even more striking than land sales as illustrating the 
rate of settlement in Michigan are the very rapid 
changes that were made in the means of transporta- 
tion, both from the East to Michigan and from the lake 
shores to the interior. A period within a dozen years 
witnessed a transformation from the birchbark canoe 
to steam navigation on the Great lakes, and from the 
Indian trail to the railroad. *^*^ While such changes were 
partly a cause of settlement they were largely the re- 
sult of the demands of settlement, actual as well as 
prospective.'^^ 

68. Michigan as Province, Territory and State, III, 105; Cooley, 

Michigan, 272-273. 

69. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 165. 

70. There is a good general survey of the early improvements of 

transportation in Michigan in R. Adams, "Agriculture in 
Michigan," in Michigan Political Science Association, 
Publications, III, 177-183. The Detroit Gazette of April 
9, .1824, laments the small interest in road building, 
affirming that roads are improved only where absolutely 
necessary, and only enough there to make them barely 
passable. For use of the canoe on Michigan waters see 
Magazine of Western History, XI, 389, 390; Mich. Hist. 
Colls., Ill, 125. See J. L. Ringwalt, Development of 
transportation Systems in the United States (Philadelphia, 
1888), 5-15 for the early systems of water transportation. 
For the French Canadian pony cart and ox team see 
Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 383-384; XXII, 487; Magazine of 
Western History, VI, 391. 



70 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The navigation of the Great Lakes by steam marked 
a new era in the settlement of Michigan. Significant 
was it that the first steamboat from Buffalo arrived at 
Detroit in 1818, in the year of opening public land sales 
there. According to the Detroit Gazette for June 2 and 
23, 1820, the usual time from Buffalo to Detroit was 
two and a half days and the fare fifteen dollars; the 
fare from Detroit to Mackinac was twenty dollars. 
The trip could be made from Boston to Detroit in 
fifteen days. The Gazette of May 8, 1818, states the 
cost of transporting goods from Albany to Detroit as 
four dollars and a half per hundred weight. In 1825-26 
there came a sudden impulse apparently due to the 
opening of the Erie Canal, when the number of steam- 
ers on Lake Erie increased from one to six.^^ In 1836 
ninety steamers are said to have arrived at Detroit in 
May bearing settlers to Michigan and the West.''^ 

The growth of steamboat travel may be measured by 
the number of passengers. The first trip of Walk-in-the 
Water in 1818 brought to Detroit twenty -nine passeng- 
ers; the Superior, which took her place after she was 
wrecked in 1821, brought ninety-four passengers ' in 
1822;" in 1830 from April 1 to May 12 twenty-four 
hundred intending settlers were landed at Detroit ;^^ in 
the following year in one week in May steamboat ar- 

71. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 909. Another account gives 

three for 1827. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 273. There 
is a good treatment of navigation on Lake Erie before 
1829in^'6i£/., IV, 79. 

72. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 909. 

73. Ibid. 

74. Detroit Journal, May 12, 1830, quoted in Michigan Political 

Science Association, Publications, IV, 521. 












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■ GENERAL INFLUENCES 71 

rivals numbered about two thousand." In 1834, in 
one day, October 7, there arrived at the same port 
nine hundred passengers.''^ 

The growing importance of the region of the Great 
Lakes is reflected in tourist's guidebooks. It was 
about 1830 apparently when the trip on the Great 
Lakes began to be considered worth while by tourists, 
but not until about 1837 do we find it very heartily 
recommended." Lake navigation was considerably 
hampered by the necessity of closing down for some 
four or five months in the winter. ^^ Usually boats be- 
gan to arrive at Detroit from Buffalo the last of April 
or the first of May^^ and continued to arrive until late 
in November. 

The settlement of the western part of Michigan was 
much aided by the comparative ease of transportation 
aft'orded by lakes Huron and Michigan especially for 
household goods and heavy merchandise. Goods were 
landed at the river mouths and thence transported in 
canoes, pole boats, or small steamers up the rivers. 
Walk-in-the-Water in 1819 took freight and passengers 
to Mackinac, «" a trip widely anticipated with much 
curiosity; the Gazette of May 14, 1819, quotes from a 
New York paper: ''The swift steamboat Walk-in-the 
Water is intended to make a voyage, early in the sum- 

75. Detroit Free Press, May 19, 1831, quoted in Farmer, History 

of Detroit, I, 335. 

76. Ibid. 

77. E. Charming and M. T. Lansing, Story of the Great Lakes 

(New York, 1909), 268. 

78. Ibid., 268, 271 ; Detroit Daily Advertiser, December 20, 1836. 

79. Detroit Gazette, May 12, 1820; May 18, 1821; April 4, 1823; 

April 2, 1824. 

80. Campbell, Political History of Michigan, 400. 



72 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

mer, from Buffalo, on Lake Erie, to Michilimackinac 
on Lake Huron, for the conveyance of company. The 
trip has so near a resemblance to the famous Argo- 
nautic expedition in the heroic ages of Greece, that ex- 
pectation is quite alive on the subject. Many of our 
most distinguished citizens are said to have already 
engaged their passage for this splendid adventure." 
There was subsequently a considerable commerce by 
steam on the upper lakes. *^ According to an editorial 
in the Detroit Jounial and Courier of July 1, 1835, "a 
trip on the upper lakes at this season has become quite 
fashionable. The establishment of a regular line of 
first rate Steam Boats between Buffalo and Chicago 
affords a fine opportunity for travellers to visit the 
rich scenery so beautifully described by Cass, School- 
craft and others. "^2 

The opening of the Erie Canal, completing an all- 
water route between Michigan and the Atlantic Ocean, 

81. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 336. For boats on Lake Michigan 

see the Detroit Gazette of August 29, 1817, which an- 
nounces the intended departure of the schooner Hercules 
for Mackinac and Chicago. The same paper for May 18, 
1821, says that fourteen schooners recently left Detroit 
laden with merchandise and produce for Michilimack- 
inac and ports on Lake Michigan. The Northwestern 
Journal, December 2, 1829, records a trip made by the 
schooner Detroit from Chicago to Detroit in twenty- 
three days. The first steamboat trip on Lake Michigan 
was one to Green Bay in 1830, mentioned in the North- 
western Journal for July 14, 1830. See also Mich. Hist. 
Colls., XII, 317; XXX, 573 et. seq.; Collin, History of 
Branch County, 34; Turner, "The colonization of the 
West," in American Historical Review, XI, 312. 

82. Harriet Martineau, however, made the trip from Chicago to 

Buffalo in June, 1836, in the sailing vessel, Milwaukee, 
which she says was the only sailing vessel available. 
Society in America, II, 2. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 73 

gave to lake navigation and to western settlement a 
new impulse. This canal was begun about the time 
that Walk-in-the-Water arrived at Detroit and opened 
to traffic seven years later. ^^ It is very probable that 
settlement was largely stimulated by anticipation of 
what this would mean.^^ The significance of it for the 
settlement of Michigan was that it changed the direc- 
tion of western emigration from the Ohio Valley to the 
Hne of the Canal and the Great Lakes. ^-^ Michigan 
would therefore profit directly from the interception of 
many settlers who had originally planned to go farther 
west. Especially would this interception be favored by 
the national survey of the Chicago Road about the 
same time. Transportation on the Canal was com- 
paratively cheap ^^ and great numbers of New England 
and New York pioneers who came to Michigan after 
1825 speak of having used the canal boat to Buffalo. 

The favorite route overland from the East to Lake 
Erie was by way of the Mohawk and Genesee Turn- 

83. Channing and Lansing, Story of the Great Lakes, 251-265. 

The Detroit Gazette for August 16, 1817, quoting from 
the Albany Daily Advertiser, notes that work is progress- 
ing on the Erie Canal — "The Grand Western Canal." 
Five hundred men a.re reported at work. 

84. T. E. Wing, History of Monroe Gounty, Michigan (New 

York, 1890), 200. 

85. ColHn, History of Branch Gounty, S3. The effect of the 

greater capacity of the canal and lake transportation was 
such that the northern route had taken precedence over 
the southern by about 1832, as shown by the transporta- 
tion of troops for the Black Hawk war. Mich. Hist. 
Golls., XXXVIII, 145. 

86. Turner "The Colonization of the West," in American His- 

torical Review, XI, 312. 



74 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

pike,^^ from the terminus of which the traveler might 
take his choice of routes along eijther the northern or 
southern shores of Lake Erie. In both cases he would 
have to cross the many streams flowing into the lake 
from either side, and would be aided little by bridges.*^ 
Swamps, if not numerous, were not scarce. Little im- 
provement seems to have been made in the Canadian 
route since Sir William Johnson required in 1761 thirty- 
nine full days to move a small body of troops in the 
most favorable season from Niagara to Detroit. «^ 
General Hull, approaching from the other direction in 
1812, moved his troops but an average of four miles a 
day from the rapids of the Miami to Detroit. ^^ 

In the improvement of Michigan rivers and in at- 
tempts to build canals not very mtich was done before 
1837, but in the years immediately following, a very 
great number of such improvements were undertaken 
by the Territorial and State governments of Michigan. 
That such elaborate attention should be given to canal 
and river navigation can be understood best in the 
light of the success of the Erie Canal and of the diffi- 
culties attending land transportation before the days of 
the railroad." 



87. Ihid., XI, 311. In Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 591-592, is 

given a good brief discussion of early routes from the 
East to the Central West. See also ihid., XXXVIII, 142. 

88. Magazine of Western History, II, 578-580. 

89. Ihid., 579. Compare a trip made by lumber wagon in 1835. 

F. Ellis, History of Livingston County (Philadelphia, 
1880), 138. 

90. Magazine of Western History, II, 580. 

91. The completion of the Erie Canal set other states to making 

canals often when there was little chance of successful 
operation. (Ringwalt, Early Transportation, 45, 46.) 
The Detroit Gazette of February 4, 1835, gives an account 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 75 

The first improvements of roads in Michigan were 
made by the National Government for mihtary pur- 
poses. The earHest of these naturally were made where 
the greatest need was felt. The War of 1812 had 
taught the strategic importance of connecting Detroit 
with the Ohio Valley; the first road established there- 
fore, in 1818, extended from Detroit through Monroe 
to the rapids of the Miami. The first line of stages be- 
gan to run over this road shortly after the Erie Canal 
was opened. ^2 By 1830 there was a continuous road, 

92. Wing, History of Monroe County, 137. See Cass's letter to 
the War Department in American State Papers: Miscel- 
laneous, II, 596; also the Detroit Gazette of January 30, 
1818, urging a National road between Detroit and San- 
dusky. The condition of travel on that route in 1818 is 
described from personal observation, by Estwick Evans, 
in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VIII, 209. The 
position of the first road is shown on the Risdon map of 
1825 as running from one to three miles from the shore. 
Apparently its improvement was very slow; Monroe citi- 
zens complained in 1822 that it was almost impassable for 
wagons even in good weather on account of logs, stumps, 
and deep holes, and in fall and spring almost impassable 
on horseback. (Detroit Gazette, April 19, 1822). See 
Cass's description of its condition in 1826; (?"6?'rf., January 
31, 1826). The stage line started that year appears to 
have been soon obliged to discontinue {ibid., August 

91. Con. of a public meeting in Detroit to consider the project of 
a canal "from Cranberry Marsh or some other eligible 
point." The same paper for June 12, 1827, gives a long 
report of a town meeting held at Dexter, in Washtenaw 
County, to consider the prospect for a canal from De- 
troit to Lake Michigan. The attention of Congress was 
called to that project in 1830 by Hon. John Biddle, ac- 
cording to the Northwestern Journal of February 10, 
1830. See Governor Mason's message in Michigan House 
Journal, 1837, p. 12, for routes recommended for canals 
in Michigan; for the Saginaw Canal, Michigan House 
Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 17; for the Clinton and Kal- 
amazoo Canal, ibid., (G), 68. 



76 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

though of very primitive character, along the entire 
water front south of Lake Huron. ^^ 

The earhest road inland was that built over the Sag- 
inaw Trail to connect Detroit with a point favorable 
for a military post among the Indians near the head 
of Saginaw Bay. A road over this route was contem- 
plated by Cass as early as 1815 1^^ A stage line seems to 
have begun regular trips over it from Pontiac to De- 
troit in 1826.9^ 

The most important of the inland routes in this 
period was the Chicago Road, which grew out of the 
military need of connecting the forts at Detroit and 
Chicago. This road in its service to settlement was 
practically an extension of the Erie Canal and was to 
become a great axis of settlement in southern Mich- 
igan.^** The route chosen was marked out by the old trail 

93. Northwestern Journal, January 6, 1830. Three stages a 

week appear to have been running between Detroit and 
Mt. Clemens by 1834. Detroit Journal and Michigan 
Advertiser, March 26. 

94. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 925. 

95. Michigan Herald, April 5, 1826. A number of stage Hnes 

were started that year, apparently indicating the im- 
pulse to immigration given by the Erie Canal. See the 
Detroit Gazette of that year for February 7, April 4, and 
May 23. 

96. Collin, History of Branch County, 25, 42. For the services 

of Lewis Cass and Father Gabriel Richard in behalf of 
this improvement, see Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 37; VI, 238; 
XXI, 440; Statutes at Large, IV, 135; editorial comment 
in the Detroit Gazette of May 14, 1824. 

92. Con. 15, 1826). It had carried passengers from Detroit to 
Ohio since February apparently at the rate of four cents 
a mile (ibid., February 7, 1826). Another stage line, 
carrying passengers at six and a fourth cents a mile, be- 
tween Detroit and Monroe, seems to have begun im- 
mediately on the failure of the old one (ibid., August 
22, 1826). 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 77 

which the Indians had beaten hard in their annual visits 
from the west to receive British presents at Maiden." 
The road ran from Detroit in almost a direct line to 
Ypsilanti, and entering Lenawee and bending there due 
west, passed through Hillsdale and Branch in a south- 
westerly direction to St. Joseph County, threaded the 
southern part of St. Joseph and Cass and left the Ter- 
ritory through the southwestern corner of Berrien. ^^ 
The stage companies improved the roads enough to get 
their coaches through but it was not until after the 
Black Hawk war that serious work was done on it by 
the Government as far west as Cass County. ^^ Harriet 
Martineau says of the road between Detroit and Ypsi- 
lanti in 1836: "Juggernaut's car would have been 
'broke to bits' on such a road"; beyond Jonesville in 
Hillsdale County it was "more deplorable than ever" ;^^° 
occasionally all had to dismount and walk, and then 
"such hopping and jumping; such slipping and sliding; 
such looks of despair from the middle of a pond; such 
shifting of logs, and carrying of planks, and handing 
along the fallen trunks of trees." A writer in the 

97. Mich. Hist. Colls., VIII, 195; Collin, History of Branch 

County, 35. 

98. Michigan Herald, June 14, 1825; Detroit Gazette, December 

13, 1825; Risdon's map of Michigan (1825); Farmer's 
map of Michigan (1835). For the condition of the road 
at different times see Northwestern Journal, January 6, 
Mav 20, 1830; Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, 
March 30, 1831, October 26, 1831; Detroit Free Press, 
November 3, 1831; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 48; II, 389. 
See also items and advertisements in the Detroit Journal 
and Michigan Advertiser for March 30, May 11, and 
June 1, 1831. The rate of passenger transportation ap- 
pears to have been four cents a mile. 

99. Glover, History of Cass County, 166. 
100. Society in America, I, 318, 322, 325, 326. 



78 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Detroit Daily Advertiser of December 24, 1836, says of 
the Detroit end of the road: "The road from this to 
Ypsilanti looks at certain times as if it had been the 
rovite of a retreating army, so great is the nmnber of 
wrecks of different kinds which it exhibits." 

The Territorial government authorized several roads 
in this period, the most important of which was the 
"Territorial Road," a name apparently given to dis- 
tinguish it from the National turnpike. This was also 
early known as the St. Joseph's Road, from the Indian 
trail through the Kalamazoo Valley whose line it fol- 
lowed approximately. 1''^ It was authorized in 1829. '"^ 
Its supposed importance for settlement is indicated in 
a report made to Governor Cass by the commissioners 
who laid out its course in 1830: "To show that this 
must be the most important road in the Territory, it is 
only necessary to state its course is direct from Detroit 
to the mouth of the St. Joseph, and the distance thirty 
miles less than by the Chicago Road — that it passes 
near the center of the peninsula, through a rich tract of 
country, and no less than seven county centers, while 
the Chicago Road takes a more circuitous route near 
the Indiana line, studiously avoiding county centers. "^^^ 
A stage line appears to have been established in 1834 
to connect with steamboats about to begin running 
from St. Joseph to Chicago; it was proposed to make 

101. See Risdon's map (1825). 

102. Territorial Laws, II, 744. 

103. The Northwestern Journal, April 21, 1830. See also a de- 

scription of the advantages along its route, in the same 
paper for May 5, 1830. These notices undoubtedly 
helped to attract attention to the settlement of the Kala- 
mazoo Valley. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 79 

the entire distance from Detroit to Chicago in five 
days.^°^ The condition of the road at the close of this 
period apparently was not as good as that of the Chi- 
cago Road, and apparently not as much traveled. 
Harriet Martineau who passed along the Chicago Road 
in going west from Detroit in June, 1836, intended to 
take the "upper road" returning, but received news at 
Chicago that it had been made impassable by the 
rains; she returned by the Lakes, the rest of the party 
by the Chicago Road.^"^ 

The agitation in Michigan for railroads began sur- 
prisingly early and a nrmiber were chartered by the 
Territorial government, a significant comment on the 
rate of settlement and the enterprise of the settlers. 
Stephenson's Rocket was still in the experimental stage 
in England, ^•'^ and only a few miles of railroad had 
been built in the most enterprising sections of the 
eastern states. Articles on these railroads began to 
appear in the Detroit papers in 1830 and charters were 
from that time sought from the Territorial Govern- 
ment, in some instances doubtless by speculators for 
the purpose of encouraging the sale of lands along a 
proposed route or at a proposed terminal. The char- 
ter of 1830 to the Pontiac and Detroit Railway Com- 
pany is the oldest in the Northwest Territory. ^°^ "We 

104. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, June 4, 1834. 

105. Society in America, II, 2. Mr. Lew Allen Chase has made 

a judicious selection of material to illustrate the larger 
features of the roads, travel, and traffic in Michigan dur- 
ing the Territorial period in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 
593. See Session Laws, 1835-1836, pp. 90-102, for some 
sixty roads authorized by the legislature. 

106. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 132. 

107. Farmer, History of Detroit, 1, 893; Mich. Territorial Laws, 

III, 844. 



80 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

advise those capitalists," says the Detroit Courier of 
August 7, 1833, "who have been so grievously disap- 
pointed in consequence of not obtaining stock in the 
Utica and Schenectady Railroad to bring hither their 
funds and forthwith take preliminary steps to invest 
the same in a railroad from Detroit to Chicago." An 
editorial in the same paper for October 30 comments on 
the rapidly increasing travel between Detroit and 
Ypsilanti and the bad condition of the wagon road as 
cogent reasons for a railway between those points. 

But before much had been done on that line, enter- 
prising men of Adrian and Port Lawrence (Toledo) be- 
gan active preparation for rail connections between 
Lake Erie and the navigable waters of Kalamazoo 
River. Immigration through Port Lawrence was in- 
creasing, and the idea of directing its course through 
Lenawee County as well as reducing the price of im- 
ports and giving an easier outlet for farm products, 
formed a powerful incentive to action. So bad was the 
road then existing between these points, it was said, 
that wagons would often plow to the box in the mud, 
from which the oxen could scarcely extricate them.^°^ 
The first cars over this first railroad in Michigan were 
operated in 1836, by horse power; but the effect on the 
price of commodities was immediate; for example, 
Syracuse salt fell from fifteen dollars to nine dollars 
per barrel and other heavy supplies in proportion. 1°^ 

In 1834 was surveyed the line of the Detroit and St. 
Joseph Railroad, approximately along the line of the 

108. Mick. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 493, 499. 

109. Ibid., 492. The financial stress following 1837 hopelessly 

bankrupted the road, and in 1848 it was leased in per- 
petuity to the Michigan Southern Railroad Company. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 81 

Territorial Road.ii'> Undoubtedly the success of the 
Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad from Adrian to Toledo, 
giving the interior an outlet in that direction and ap- 
pearing to endanger the commercial interests of De- 
troit, did much to hasten the work on the St. Joseph 
Road. 11' When it was taken over by the State in 1837, 
nearly one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars had 
been expended on it; for which there had been done 
thirteen miles of grading and most of the clearing and 
grubbing between Detroit and Ypsilanti.n- Contem- 
porary appreciation of the importance of this road is 
shown by its completion to Ypsilanti in 1836. n^ 

To be sure, these first roads in Michigan were very 
primitive— strap-railed and operated by horse power. 
The first locomotive in 1837 on the Erie and Kalama- 
zoo road between Adrian and Toledo was compara- 

nO Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9, p. 2; and No. 9 
(B), 29, 31. See description of the route in the Detroit 
Journal and Courier, July 8, 1835. This was the be- 
ginning of the later Michigan Central Railroad. 

111. See editorials in the Detroit Daily Advertiser of July 26, 

August 12, and November 28, 1836. 

112. Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9, p. 9. See for the 

projected system of internal improvements. Session Laws, 
1837, pp. 130-133; House Journal, 1837, pp. 11-14, 114; 
House Documents, 1837, No. 9, p. 1. For an expression 
of the popular sentiment see constitutional sanction in 
Michigan Legislative Manual, 1837, p. 45, art. 13, sec. 3. 

113. For an account of the festivities celebrating the arrival of 

the first train at Ypsilanti, see Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 
394. A copy of the invitation issued by the commission 
of internal improvements to Mr. Ball to "take a seat in 
the cars" on this first trip is contained in ihid., XXXVIII, 
101. For the Southern Railroad from Monroe west- 
ward on the line of the later Michigan Southern Rail- 
road, see Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9, pp. 
• 4-7; for the Northern Railroad, see ihid., 13-16. 
11 



y 



82 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tively a toy;ii^ the train on this Hne appears to have 
been fairly typical. The first passenger coach, called the 
"Pleasure Car," was top-heavy and always jumping the 
track. Passenger trains had an engine and one coach, 
which carried about twenty persons. The seats were 
benches along the sides of the coach; the door was on 
the side; there were no steps, the coaches being low 
and accessible from the ground. Later on,, double- 
decker coaches were introduced; the upper deck, for 
women, was furnished with sheepskin-covered seats 
while the lower deck, for the men, had only wooden 
seats ; these cars could carry sixteen passengers on each 
deck. The first engines v/ere about twenty horse 
power, and six cars made a good-sized freight train ; the 
freight cars held only about two tons. The first train 
crews consisted of a fireman and an engineer; the fuel 
was wood taken from the forests en route; water for the 
engine was procured from the ditches. ^^^ 

A word should be said about the government of the 
Territory as an influence on settlement, though not 
much can be said of it as an asset in this relation. The 
opportunity for abuses, practically with immunity, were 
abundant, the powers of the government being ill- 
defined and the officials distant from Washington with 

114. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 232, 236; Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 

893. 

115. Descriptions adapted from Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 

495-496. See Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9 
(A), 14-15, for a description of the process of building 
one of these primitive roads. A picture of the first train 
over the road from Detroit to Dearborn is given in Mich. 
Hist. Colls., IV, 516, and of the Erie and Kalamazoo 
train in ibid., XXXVIII, opposite p. 494. 








'r-T ^rf-4gr-fe>' 






-^^i*a^^g.^,^ 





FIRST RAILROAD TRAIN IN THE WEST 

(Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 494) 

This train reacheii Adrian from Port Lawrence (Toledo) Nov. 2. 1836, over the Erie 
and Kalamazoo Railroad, a strap-railed line which was commenced in 1833 and com- 
pleted in 1836. See p. 81. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 83 

only themselves to report their conduct. Legislative, 
executive, and judicial powers were vested practically 
in the same persons, a small junto of four composed of 
the governor and three judges; rarely were they in 
agreement ; many are the accounts of their frequent and 
bitter broils. Many were the protests from the peo- 
ple ;^^^ it is said that the citizens of Detroit were so 
disgusted with this misrule that they refused to vote 
for councilmen after the first election in 1806. Fre- 
quently the people expressed their indignation through 
grand juries. ^^^ In* 1809 by this means they petitioned 
Congress for a change in the form of government, asking 
for an elective legislature and a delegate to Congress; 
but that body busily engaged with the foreign affairs 
preceding the War of 1812, gave little heed; not until 
the close of that conflict was a larger share in local 
government secured. ^^^ 

The movement for a change in the form of the Terri- 
torial government was strongly advocated in the De- 
troit Gazette with the purpose of "encouraging immi- 
gration, inducing settlement and developing the re- 
sources of the Territory." The increased expense 
would be an investment sure of rich returns, argued 
"Cincinnatus" in that paper for November 21, 1817, 
advocating change to a form "more congenial to the 
principles and feeling of the American people." "The 
government of this Territory, in its formation, is des- 
potic — as it exists at present, it is anarchy," declared 

116. Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 283. 

117. Ibid., 288, 290-291. 

118. Ihid., 289. 



84 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

another. 113 Governor Cass, thoroughly democratic, de- 
sired complete popular rule to be consummated for the 
Territory as rapidly as the will of the people should 
permit; 120 but the French, suffering from the ravages 
of war, hated nothing so much as taxes and had not the 
feeling for popular government characteristic of the 
"Yankee" immigrants. It was apparently the strength 
of their vote in 1818 that defeated the attempt to 
effect a change to the second grade of Territorial 
government, i-^i 

The Territory first elected a delegate to Congress in 
1819, when it was provided that all white males who 
had resided in Michigan one year prior to the date of 
election and who paid a Territorial or county tax might 
vote at the election. i^-s The second important change 
was in 1823 when the Legislative Council was estab- 
lished, in the election of whose members the people 
were given a partial voice. 1^3 The complaints against 
the Territorial officials published in the Detroit Gazette 
preceding this change make an almost continuous series 

119. October 28. See also the Detroit Gazette of 1817 for Octo- 

ber 10, November 28, December 5, 12, 26, and January 2, 
1818, for a series of articles on the misrule of the Gover- 
nor and Judges, signed "Rousseau." A writer in the 
issue of December 19, 1817, regrets the influence such 
writings must have on immigration. In the issue for 
January 13, 1818, a strong editorial sets forth the ad- 
vantages of the second grade of Territorial government. 

120. Journal of the Legislative Council, 1824, p. 8; ibid., 1826, 

pp. 5-6. 

121. Detroit Gazette, October 2, 1818; Camj^bell, Political History 

of Michigan, 391; Smith, Life and Times of Lewis Cass, 
113. 

122. Statutes at Large, III, 482; Detroit Gazette, May 28, 1819. 

123. Statutes at Large, III, 769. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 85 

of articles and editorials. ^24 jj^ fact, they are con- 
tinuous from its founding in 1817. These writings 
quoted in the eastern papers were detrimental, to the 
immigration at least of those who were particular about 
living under good government. The New York Com- 
mercial Advertiser, quoted in the Detroit Gazette of De- 
cember 27, 1822, declares that ''Michigan is the worst 
governed State or Territory in the Union if half is true 
that has been published in the last three or four years 
and never contradicted. "^^^ In 1827 Congress provided 
for the complete popular election of the Legislative 
Council, subject to a check by the governor's veto and 
to congressional approval. ^2** The Territorial govern- 
ment thus inaugurated continued until the election of 
State officers in 1836. 

The agitation for a change to State government be- 
gan actively about 1831. An editorial in the Detroit 
Gazette for October 8, 1824, had prophesied that in 
view of the present progress of settlement, Michigan 

124. The editorials first became trenchant in 1820. See a criti- 

cism of the editorial silence on abuses, in the Gazette for 
August 11, 1820, followed August 25 by an editorial de- 
mand that an account be made by the treasurer of the 
Territory, of the expenditure of public money during the 
last five years. 

125. Judge Woodward was the center of the attack on the Judges ; 

see the severe and specific arraignment in the Gazette for 
November 1 and 8, 1822; he published his defense in 
eastern papers, which led the Gazette to say that he ap- 
peared more desirous of being thought clean at Washing- 
ton than in Michigan. 

126. Statutes at Large, 4, 200. The Detroit Gazette of June 18, 

1824, contains very favorable comment on the recent 
work of the Legislative Council, publishing from this time 
forth the proceedings and laws of the Council and the 
speeches of the Governor. 



86 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

woiild be eligible for statehood in 1826. But progress 
was not quite so rapid. The Detroit Free Press of 
September 8, 1831, forcast a sufficient population "in 
a year or so" ; in 1832 a vote taken on the issue though 
favorable was small, and Congress declined to consider 
it. 127 As in 1818 and 1823 the French-Canadians' fear 
of increase in taxes again ftirnished the strength of the 
negative vote.^^s "Yhe small size of the favorable ma- 
jority indicated probably less a lack of interest on the 
part of eastern settlers than the distraction of atten- 
tion from it by the cholera epidemic and the rumors of 
Indian uprisings. Regarding the franchise it is worthy 
of note that for this occasion it was extended beyond 
the qualified electors to all males of age excepting In- 
dians and Negroes. 129 

Increasing numbers in 1833-34 again revived the 
agitation for statehood and symptoms appeared of the 
attitude Michigan was to take in the later conflict over 
admission. "Even if congress omits to act in the 
case," says the editor of the Detroit Joicrnal and Michi- 
gan Advertiser, October 29, 1834, "and appear to de- 
cline admitting her into the Union as a boon, we shall 
probably soon have proof that she may demand it as 
a right. "13" A census taken in 1834 revealed a popula- 

127. Detroit Free Press, October 18, 1832; Detroit Courier, March 

13, 1833; Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 376. 

128. Detroit Free Press, October 11, 1832; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XXII, 484; XXVIII, 171. 

129. Campbell, Political History of Michigan, 435. 

130. See other editorial discussions in the same paper for^Novem- 

ber 5, 12, 19, 26, December 4., etc., 1834, and frequently 
from then forward. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 87 

tion of 87,278."^ In 1835 a State constitution was 
adopted, a complete State government was elected, 
and Michigan claimed under the Ordinance of 1787 to 
be a State, awaiting only congressional action on its 
right to admission into the Union. The popular senti- 
ment in favor of State government is reflected in the 
vote of six to one for the adoption of the new constitu- 
tion in 1835, and as settlement increased in 1835-36 
mainly from New York and New England the sentiment 
for statehood brought from the older states grew 
stronger in Michigan. For over a year, however, 
Michigan continued to be technically a Territory, at 
least not a State in the Union, though its people lived 
under the new constitution, i^'^ The constitution ad- 
opted may fairly be taken to express the general feel- 
ing of the people regarding popular rights. Among 
other things it required that a voter must be a white 
male above twenty-one years of age, a citizen or resi- 
dent in Michigan at the time of the adoption of the 
constitution and a resident of the State six months 
preceding the election. ^^^^ The franchise was extended 

131. Blois, Gazetteer, 150. 

132. There is a good brief analysis of the constitution of 1835 in 

Cooley's Michigan, 299-303; also in Michigan as Province, 
Territory and State, III, 43-53. The issue of the admission 
of Michigan afforded an instructive expression of state 
rights in the West, taking some time to settle because of 
being compromised with the slavery question, the ad- 
mission of Arkansas, and the boundary controversy with 
Ohio. 
A good brief digest of the legislation of 1835-37 bearing 
upon the settlement and development of Michigan, is 
contained in ibid.. Ill, 69, 77-89. See also the two 
volumes of Session Laws, 1835-1836, and 1837. 

133. Michigan Legislative Manual, 1837, p. 30. 



88 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

to all aliens then in Michigan, but a residence of five 
years was required of newcomers."'* Alpheus White, 
a native of Ireland, appears to have been largely in- 
strumental in getting an extension of the suffrage to 
aliens then residing in the Territory. ^^^ 

Settlers coming from the East to Michigan must have 
recognized in the laws of the Territory much with 
which they were familiar, since by reason of the origin 
the laws they reflected as a whole the spirit of the 
East. I'"' A writer who has made a special study of this 
feature finds that they were derived in about equal 
proportions from Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and 
Virginia."^ Punishment at the whipping post was de- 
rived from the laws of Vermont ;^^^ as late as 1832 a 
public whipping of fifteen lashes on the bare back ap- 
pears to have been administered in the public square 
of Monroe village."^ At the close of the period a 

134. Michigan Political Association, Piiblications , I, 130; a num- 

ber of newspaper articles appeared in 1836 bearing on 
the right of foreign immigrants to vote. See the Detroit 
Journal and Courier, July 1, 1835. 

135. Michigan Biographies (Lansing, 1888), 685. 

136. In some cases the intent of Congress to restrict the legisla- 

tion of the Governor and Judges to such as could be 
found on the statute books of the states, was frustrated 
by an ingenious patchwork method of piecing together 
sentences and phrases from those laws; this was one of 
the abuses complained of. 

137. E. W. Bemis, Local Government in Michigan and the North- 

west (John Hopkins University studies, 1st ser., 5 — 
Baltimore, 1883), 10. At the close of most of the Terri- 
torial laws is a statement of the source from which they 
are derived, usually naming merely the State. 

138. Mathews, Expansion of New England, 223. 

139. Wing, History of Monroe County, 140; punishment by whip- 

ping was abolished in the Territory by statute in 1831. 
Territorial laws, III, 904. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 89 

movement for the abolition of imprisonment for debt 
had gained headway, of which the pubhcation of Whit- 
tier's poem "The Prisoner for Debt" in a Detroit 
paper is a reflection; in 1837 this relic was abolished by 
law.i" 

Of first rate importance to settlement were the pro- 
visions for county, township, and village government. 
The establishment of counties ran far ahead of settle- 
ment, it being the intention apparently to invite settle- 
ment and to avoid the difficulties that would attend 
the running of county lines after settlers should have 
located farms. ^-^^ In a rough way the rate of county 
organization may be taken to indicate the rate of set- 
tlement, i^- Popular participation in county govern- 
ment was granted by Congress in 1825 when the quali- 
fied electors were authorized to choose all county officers 
except judges. 1^^ 

140. Session Laws, 1837, p. 299. However, Chief Justice Fletcher, 

in the work known from its compiler as "Fletcher's 
Code," embodied the old law, and the new one was re- 
enacted in 1839. Session Laws, 1839, p. 76. 

141. Territorial Laws, II, 798-800; Detroit Gazette, editorial of 

September 13, 1822. 

142. A very good brief study of the expansion of Michigan based 

on county organization has been made by Mr Mark W. 
Jefferson in Report of the Michigan Academy of Science, 
1902, pp. 88-91. See plates in Farmer's History of De- 
troit, I, 119, 120. Another and more extended study of 
this subject has been made by Mr. William Henry 
Hathaway, in The Evolution of the Counties of Michigan, 
soon to be published by the Michigan Historical Com- 
mission. For the establishment of the first counties, and 
their vmequal areas, see W. L. Jenks, in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXVIII, 447; also Territorial Laws, I, 121, 122, 323, 
325, 327, 328; II, 295. 

143. Statutes at Large, TV, 80; for legislation affecting the estab- 

lishment of county seats, see Territorial Laws, HI, 840; 
Session Laws, 1835-36, p. SI; ibid., 1837, pp. 268, 287.- 



00 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The democratic character of local government was no 
small inducement to settlers, especially to the freedom- 
loving foreigner who came hither to enjoy what he 
could not obtain in the Fatherland. In 1825 Con- 
gress gave to the Governor and Council of the Terri- 
tory the power to divide the counties into townships Z^* 
and in the year 1827 this power was extensively used.^^^ 
Township government sometimes preceded county gov- 
ernment by a number of years, as in Grand Blanc 
Township in Genesee County, i"*^ and Allegan Township 
in Allegan County. ^^^ The Michigan town meeting 
combined with the powers of the New England town 

meeting the organization of the New York county 
board. 14 8 

The successive variations in the areas of the political 
townships has naturally much significance as an indi- 

144. Lanman, Michigan, 228. 

145. Territorial Laws, II, 477. See comments of the Detroit 

Gazette of March 6, 1827, on the proceedings of the Legis- 
lative Council regarding township government. Their 
opinion of the importance of the subject is attested by 
the time given to it, greater than to any other measure 
since the organization of the Council. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
Ill, 434. 

146. Ibid., Ill, 434. 

147. Ibid., XVII, 558. 

148. Mathews, Expansion of New England, 236, quoting E. W. 

Bemis, Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest, 
14-17; cf. Territorial Laws, II, 317, 640. See the discus- 
sion in the Detroit Gazette, February 27, 1827, for con- 
temporary opinion as to the respective merits of the New 
England and New York plans of township government. 
The Michigan Herald of January 17, 1827, states that a 
majority of citizens prefer the New York system of town- 
ship government because cheaper and more convenient; 
the same paper for February 28, 1827, contains an article 
against the New York plan. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 91 

cation of settlement. The earliest of these townships 
were sometimes of great extent. Some of them in- 
cluded several counties, as the township of Greene, 
humorously famous among pioneers for its size.^^^ Fre- 
quently the first political township in a county was 
coterminous with the county, and this large township 
would be later subdivided along the lines of the govern- 
ment townships into political townships of varying 
areas. 15" 

In the educational and cultural advantages offered 
by Michigan Territory there was not much to invite 

149. Mich. Hist. Colls., X, 63; Territorial Laws, II, 787. For the 

very large townships in northern counties see ibid., II, 
480-481. 

150. As a small political area organized on petition of the people 

for township government, the township indexes popula- 
tion on a smaller scale than does the county; hence it is 
supplementary as a measure of settlement within the 
counties. The name, date, position, size, and boundaries 
of a township may tell much. The date and position of 
the first townships organized in a county are quite cer- 
tain evidence of how the population was distributed ; and 
the rate of township organization is fairly dependable as 
a means of contrasting the larger features of settlement 
within the counties. The names and boundaries of 
townships ay often give a clue to the motive of settle- 
ment, and to the sources of the population; but caution 
must be used in basing judgments upon the relative 
areas of townships; relative size, area for area, is likely 
to be very misleading, and should be compared with other 
evidence. Small townships naturally give the impression 
of density of population; and the large ones, of sparse- 
ness; but a township diagram of any county for any 
census will invariably give evidence that this relativity 
of area is not of itself a safe guide to relative density of 
population. Townships have varied in size for sundry 
reasons — physiographic, ethnic, economic, social; various 
other conditions have influenced feeling about who 
should be included in the townships. 



92 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

settlers. 1^^ The importance of this element as an in- 
ducement to settlers, however, should be duly ap- 
preciated. Many of the leading pioneers had been 
educated in eastern schools and colleges; and the uni- 
versal respect for education is shown by the social 
status of the teacher, which was equal to that of the 
minister or physician. The influence of the devoted 
pioneer priests and preachers, like Father Gabriel 
Richard, John Monteith, and John D. Pierce, in ele- 
vating the general tone of social life must have been 
considerable. 1^- It was probably a general sentiment 
among intending emigrants that was reflected in an 
editorial of the Northwestern Journal of January 13, 
1830, commenting on the "multiplication of schools, of 
places of worship, of religious teachers, and the im- 
provement of the moral habits of the people:" that 
"there are very many by whom a satisfactory answer 
to the questions 'can we educate our children there, 
and enjoy ourselves and secure to them the blessings 
of Sabbath instruction,' would be demanded before 
they would determine to emigrate." 

Though the foundations of Michigan's public school 
system, at least in practice, were laid after Michigan 
became a State, something was done by legislation in 
the earlier period. National land grants for schools 
provided a part of the financial basis both for primary 
and higher education. ^^^^ Governor Cass had the 
thorough-going New England sense of the importance 

151. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 36-51. 

152. J. D. Hoyt and R. C. Ford, John D. Pierce, Founder of the 

Michigan School System (Ypsilanti, 1905), 40-41, 44-46. 

153. A. C. McLaughlin, History of Higher Education in Michigan, 

17, 18; Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 19. 



GENERAL INFLUENCES 93 

of educating the masses as a basis for citizenship and 
did his utmost to promote schools. ^^-^ It is probable 
that his inspiration was back of the apparent awaken- 
ing of interest in public education reflected in the legis- 
lation of 1827 providing for common schools in the 
townships. 1^'^ 

However, the log schoolhouses built by the settlers, 
meagerly equipped, and probably frequently officered 
by schoolmasters of the type of Ichabod Crane, re- 
mained throughout this period the sole public educa- 
tional advantage within reach of the vast majority of 
children. 1^'' Academies appeared at Pontiac, Ann Ar- 
bor, and a few other centers of settlement. i" The Ann 
Arbor Academy had a considerable reputation, draw- 
ing pupils from prominent families in Detroit. ^^^ Some 
sHght beginnings that looked towards a university made 

154. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 123, citing Journal of the Legisla- 

tive Council, 1826, pp. 5-6. 

155. Territorial Laws, II, 472; see also ^'^^'c?., Ill, 1012, 1377. A 

brief review of Territorial school legislation in Michigan 
is given in Michigan Joint Documents, 1880, pp. 307-309; 
and of the organization of the Territorial school system 
in Hoyt and Ford, John D. Pierce, 47-52. 

156. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 429. See the sketch of a typical pio- 

neer school of about this time at Ypsilanti, probably of 
the better type, "Annual report of the Superintendent of 
PubHc Instruction, 1880," in Michigan Joint Documents, 
1880, pp. 306-307. The visitation was made in 1839 by 
the editor of an eastern school paper, The Common School 
Assistant, in whose columns for September of that year 
appeared his report — good teachers, but poor ventilation, 
bad desks and seats, windows poor, ceiHngs low, and the 
settlers unwilhng to have any change made. 

157. Territorial Laws, III, 849, 879, 881, 975, 992, 1069, 1120, 

1205, 1379. 

158. Mich. Hist. Colls., I. 400. 



94 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

their appearance. ^^^ Toward the end of the period 
there were formulated those plans of Isaac E. Crary 
and John D. Pierce which appearing first in spirit in 
the State constitution of 1835 were brought to practi- 
cal realization by the earliest State legi slat ion ^'^o and 
were to mean much for later settlement. 



159. Territorial Laws, 1,879; 11,104; McLanghlm, Higher Ed- 

ucation in Michigan, 29-31; Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 37; 
B. A. Hinsdale and I. N. Demmon, History of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, passim; Michigan Joint Documents, 
1880, pp. 353-355, 358, 360-363. 

160. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 38; V, 184-187; McLaughlin, //ig/z^r. 

Education in Michigan, 34-35 ; Michigan Legislative Man- 
ual, 1837, pp. 43; 44, art. 10, sec. 2, 3. Hoyt and Ford, 
John D. Pierce, 79-87; Michigan Joint Documents , 1880, 
pp. 309-313. 



CHAPTER III 
The Eastern Shore 

^HE lands now in Monroe, Wayne, Macomb and 
St. Clair counties were the earliest portion of the 
southern peninsula to receive Canadian-French settlers, 
and. they contained always a larger proportion of that 
element of population than did any other part of 
Michigan Territory. They were also the first counties 
to receive American settlers, for they had a common 
shore line facing Canada and the eastern states. A 
continuous network of streams afforded drainage, a 
degree of navigation, and well distributed water power. 
In view of the initial advantages which these counties 
shared they had a slower rate of settlement than might 
have been expected. This was due partly to peculiar- 
ities of soil, timber and position. ?■ 

The surface soil [in much of Monroe and Wayne 
counties was a stiff clay which, as a recent map of the 
surface geology indicates, was probably the bottom of 
an ancient lake.^ At the time of the first settlement this 
soil was covered densely with forests of ash and elm. 
The difficulty of clearing it was a serious discouragement 
to farmers and this accounts partly for the slowness with 
which these lands received actual settlers as compared 

1. Soil map in pocket of the Mich. Geological Survey Report, 
1907. 



96 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

with the more open counties farther inland. In Macomb 
and St. Clair counties settlers met, besides the heavy 
clay lands, the lighter soils on the rolling clay drift. 
These had lighter forests, mainly of maple and oak 
with the characteristic "openings" and offered much 
less difficulty to the beginnings of agriculture. On 
the sandy land in St. Clair County there was much 
pine, inviting to settlers interested in lumbering; 
apparently many Maine lumbermen came early to this 
region.^ But the position of the northern counties 
of the section was somewhat aside from the general 
current of immigration from the eastern states. In 
many portions the forest was heavy and the abundance 
of pine was held to indicate inferior soil. 

The lands of this section had a common watershed 
which drained their waters to the eastern shore in a 
current strong enough to give abundant water power. 
The numerous branches of the streams forming a 
network of irrigation and water for stock insured also 
a minimum waste of land. Enumerating northward, 
the inland streams that meant most to the American 
settlement of this section where the Raisin, the Huron, 
the Rouge, the Clinton, the Belle, the Pine and the 
Black.^ The French-Canadians, who were the first 
to come, settled also on the smaller streams and on the 
intervening dry land between the mouths along the 
shore. They cared less for water power than for 
conditions favoring compactness and ease of com- 

2. For example, a party of four are said to have purchased, in 

1835, 25,000 acres of pine land. Hist, oj St. Clair County 
(1883), 305. 

3. The Detroit and St. Clair rivers were regarded as straits. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 97 

munication. Any stream that could float a canoe 
and could afford enough water for the household and 
a few heads of stock was considered by them satis- 
factory for a settlement. At the time Michigan became 
a Territory, French-Canadians were to be found along 
such inconsiderable streams as Otter Creek, Sandy 
Creek, Stony Creek and the Ecorse. The land about 
the mouths of almost all the eastern streams was low 
and marshy, but a little distance back from the shore 
there were usually large patches of fertile open meadow 
land which afforded ample homes for these settlers."* 
Almost ever}^ stream of this section that emptied 
into the shore waters had French farmers upon its 
banks; no French settlement was away from either 
shore or stream. Jouett, Indian Agent at Detroit, 
assigns as one motive for this the scarcity of springs 
in these heavy clay lands, ^ An early writer adds as 
motives the good canoeing and fishing.*^ The 

4. It is almost needless to say that the local conditions of 

topography, soil and navigation along these streams have 
been so changed by artificial drainage, deforestation, 
drying of streams, harbor improvements and cultivation 
of the land, that conclusions cannot be safely based alone 
upon present-day observations. One can best study the 
French settlements in the light of contemporary de- 
scriptions, like that given by Indian Agent Jouett, writ- 
ten for the information of Congress at about the begin- 
ning of Michigan's history as a Territory. His careful 
visitation of the settleinents extended almost the entire 
length of the shore, from the Ohio boundary to Lake 
Huron. He informs the Secretary of War that he has 
"avoided neither trouble nor fatigue" to make the record 
accurate, "by minute investigation." The report is 
printed in Amer. State Papers., Public Lands, I, 190-193, 
and in the same series, Indian Affairs, I, 758-760. 

5. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 191. 

6. Detroit Gazette, Oct. 30, 1818. 

13 



98 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

mouths of the streams, separated by intervals of 
shore Hne, were from three to ten miles or more 
apart and in longer intervals there were settle- 
ments along the shore. An example is seen in the 
interval between the Rouge and the Clinton which 
included Detroit.^ The river settlements were always 
on the lower courses of the streams and as near 
to the shore waters as the marshy lands about their 
mouths would permit.^ 

The desire of the French to be near the shore ap- 
parently led them in some instances to submit to very 
unhealthful environments. In the Western Gazetteer 
(1817) Brown mentions a settlement on Swan Creek, 
"the worst looking stream tributary to Lake Erie," 
where the water, choked with aquatic plants, was so 
putrid that it would "rope in smnmer like molasses;" 
yet, says the author, "the inhabitants make free use 
of it for cooking and drinking" and "their children 
near the shore look miserably."^ The French seem 
to have preferred this despite the fact that the water 
four miles from the mouth was brisk enough to run 
' ' water machinery. ' ' Jouett reports that at the Rouge, 
whose sluggish current made its mouth like a pool, 

7. Originally there were small streams running through the 

settlement at Detroit. See plate in Farmer's History of 
Detroit, I, 9. The course of the River Savoyard became 
the line of the first underground sewer of the city. 

8. On Otter Creek the settlements extended, according to 

Jouett, to the shore of Lake Erie. In the Western 
Gazetteer (p. 160) Brown reports settlements on the 
Raisin within two miles of its mouth. 

9. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 160. This seems to be the creek 

called by the French "La Riviere aux Cignes." The 
settlement is not mentioned by Jouett. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 99 

"fevers of malignant nature confine whole families 
for weeks together. "^° Along the shore south of the 
Clinton were obstacles to good health "which neither 
the industry nor the perseverance of the agriculturist 
would be able to surmount," a place "less calculated 
for a settlement than any other I have ever seen in 
this country;" yet it was occupied by a fairly large 
colony. ^^ 

It appears that the distance to which the French 
settlements extended inland bore some relation to 
canoe navigation. The largest groups of farms were 
on the largest streams. A group was rarely longer 
than ten miles. There was one of that length on the 
St. Clair above the mouth of Belle River, one a little 
longer on the Raisin and one of nine miles on the 
CHnton.^- A line of stetlement north and south of 
Detroit forming the center of the frontier extended 
from near the Rouge to some distance above Grosse 
Point e. On the smaller streams the size of the settle- 
ments was quite disproportionate to the size of the 
streams. For instance, on the Rouge an almost 
continuous line of farms reached inland for eight 
miles, only a mile shorter than the group along the 
Clinton; this is the distance reported by Jouett to 
which this stream was navigable for "small boats." 
On the little streams Otter and Sandy creeks, settle- 
ment extended inland for three miles. Rocky River, 
which according to Jouett was not navigable for 
"even the smallest boats," but which had pure water 

10. A.S.P., Public Lands, I, 191. 

11. Ibid., I, 192. 

12. Ibid., I, 190, 192. 193. 



100 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

and excellent soil, is reported to have had no French 
farmers. ^^ 

The one exception to settlement on an available 
stream of good size was furnished by Hm"on River. 
The soil was good — "None is superior to the lands 
on this river," says Jouett — and they were apparently 
known to the French to be fertile. In 1794 something 
like speculation took place when the trader Gabriel 
Godfroy bought from the Indians four thousand acres 
on the lower Huron. Apparently he made no effort 
to people the land; in 1803 Jouett found one tenant 
there living near the mouth of the river as a ferryman. 
Fertility of soil seems not to have been an inducement 
to French settlers if other things were lacking. The 
want appears to have been in this case a suitable 
relation to the large settlements at Detroit and on 
the Raisin. The obscure Ecorse, ten miles nearer to 
Detroit seems to have been preferred ; the lower Huron 
lay directly on the usual trail over which the Indians 
passed in reaching the British in Canada; Detroit 
offered the protection of the fort. Moreover, a posi- 
tion on the trail would favor Godfroy 's trading interests 
with the Indians, which would not be improved by the 
presence of French settlers. It does not seem certain 
that he had a post on his land on the lower Huron 

13. Ibid., I, 190. Land was purchased early there (to the 
amount of 600 French acres, 1786-1788) by two French 
Canadians, apparently for speculation. A portion of it 
was later acquired by the Detroit firm of Meldrum & 
Park. Improvements were made, including a distillery 
and a flouring mill, said to have been worth $10,000, but 
the French seem not to have been attracted. In 1803 
Jouett reports but two families as being then on the 
river, engaged in managing the distillery and mill. 
Ibid., 1, 190. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 101 

but he appears to be the same with the Gabriel Godfrey 
who was given title by the Government (1811) to land 
on this trail at the site of Ypsilanti, and who had a 
post there as early as 1809.^'* 

The amounts of population at the several points had 
apparently little relation to the relative extensions 
of settlement inland. The most populous settlement 
along the shore of the Detroit River above and below 
the village extended inland only the length of the 
farms. The Raisin River settlement, whose families 
numbered upward of one hundred and twenty, made 
a group almost four times as large as that on the 
Clinton.^''' The settlement on the Rouge, a mile 
shorter than that on the Clinton, exceeded the latter 
in number of farms by about a dozen. ^"^ 

14. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1092-1093; Ann Arbor 

Folio, p. 1. See also the Greeley survey of French claims 
(1810). Jouett's report apparently aims to present the 
advantages of the lower Huron to eastern settlers. He 
speaks of "the deep and gentle current" of the river, 
navigable for boats twenty miles; of the "extensive 
prairies" and "beautiful sceneries," — and even of the 
hazel brush, as affording "a pleasant shade to the de- 
lighted traveler." To a title, he says, Godfroy could 
have "no pretensions," the deed being signed by onl}" one 
Indian chief, without a witness. 
Another early purchase made by Godfroy (3000 French 
acres) was on the Rocky River. Francis Pepin, the 
second of the trio who established the post at the 
site of Ypsilanti, bought the same amount at about the 
same time (1786-1788) on the opposite bank. 

15. A. S. P., Ptihlic Lands, I, 190, 192. This is approximately 

the relative proportion of claims shown in the Greeley 
survey of 1810. Jouett's usage in the employment of 
"occupants" and "inhabitants" is loose. He seems 
sometimes to mean heads of families. Occasionally he 
uses "farms" and "families." 

16. Ibid., I, 191. 



102 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The desire of the French to be as near Detroit as 
possible and still be near the shore is illustrated by 
the almost unbroken continuity of the shore settlements 
about Detroit with those on neighboring streams. 
The influence of Detroit is apparent in the grouping 
of so large a colony on the Rouge, ^^ which really was 
an expansion up that stream of the shore settlements 
south of Detroit. Jouett reports a gap some two 
miles in extent between these groups, due to the marshy 
shore immediately north of the mouth of the Rouge; 
but the Greeley map (1810) shows no break in the 
continuity of the French claims. The group included 
by Greeley under "Detroit Settlement" begins with 
a claim fronting entirely on the Rouge. ^^ Associated 
closely on his map with the Rouge claims are those 
on the Ecorse. The claims which face the southern 
bank of the Rouge extend across one branch of the 
Ecorse; the Rouge claims nearest the shore abut on 
the northernmost Ecorse claim. A similar continuity 
is observed north of Detroit. Jouett records upward 
of a hundred farms grouped along the shore north of 
Detroit, and on the Greeley map the only break in 
their continuity with those on the Clinton is for a 
distance of about four miles above Grosse Pointe. 
On Greeley's map a marsh is shown there, apparently 
indicating a part of the unhealthful shore region 
mentioned by Jouett. 

This break in the line of shore settlements, however, 
marks properly the northern limits of the Detroit 
group. The environment of the Clinton River and 

17. The Greeley map shows seventy-five claims on the Rouge. 

18. •Claim No. 718. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 103 

of the shore of Lake St. Clair, as well as the character 
of the settlements, gives a distict individuality to the 
group beyond. The characteristic of this group was 
the comparative sparseness of settlement. Jouett 
states that he met but two settlers in the whole distance 
from the Clinton to the St. Clair River, and the number 
of families on the Clinton are reported as less than on 
the Rouge. ^® The Clinton River, in general, appears 
to have offered excellent advantages for farming, but 
the lower course was marshy for some miles and the 
American shore of Lake St. Clair seems to have been 
regarded by the French as a succession of marshes 
and sand.^° 

A third area of settlement was along the St. Clair 
River. This had two groups of fair size, one of twelve 
farms fronting on the last six miles of the river's course, 
and a second of twenty-four farms near its junction 
with the Pine.^^ 

South of Detroit beyond the Ecorse the shore lands, 
though offering prime advantage for farming, were 
practically destitute of settlements for a distance of 
some twenty miles, to the Raisin River." Some three 
miles from the Raisin on either side of its mouth were 



19. On the Clinton there were, according to Jouett, thirty-four 

families, a number corresponding approximately with the 
nmnber of claims shown on the Greeley map. 

20. On the Greeley map, the shore of Anchor Bay contains a 

Chippewa Reservation of 5760 acres, — apparent evidence 
that the land was not poor there, as the Indians rarely 
chose poor soil for their villages. The same map shows 
five large French claims just above the Clinton at the 
mouths of small streams. 

21. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 192, 193. 

22. The Greeley map shows six claims at Brownstown Creek; 

four of them were apparently not French, bearing the 
names of Adam Brown and William Walker. 



104 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

settlements on Sandy and Otter creeks which num- 
bered together not over forty farms, overshadowed 
by the larger group on the Raisin. The Raisin River 
group was by far the largest inland group of French 
farms in the Territory, numbering upward of one 
hundred and twenty.-^ 

These four areas of French settlement, on the Raisin, 
the Detroit, the Clinton and the St. Clair rivers, fore- 
shadowed the division of this shore line among the 
present counties of Monroe, Wayne, Macomb and 
St. Clair. 

The French-Canadian farms in Michigan differed 
from the usual "Yankee" farms in shape and size. 
With few exceptions they formed regular parallelo- 
grams ; and in area there appear to have been mainly 
four classes, respectively of 80, 120, 160 and 200 French 
acres-'*- — according to the extent of water frontage. 

23. hi a communication made in January, 1806, a newly ap- 
pointed associate judge of Michigan Territory (A. B. 
Woodward) reported to the Government the whole num- 
ber of French farms in the Territory to be 442. A. S. P., 
Public Lands, I, 266. His figures, which agree sub- 
stantially with those of Jouett, were probably not made 
from personal investigation of the settlements, since he 
had been less than a year in the Territory and ap- 
parently most of that time in Detroit. Probably he had 
access to Jouett 's information, as the latter was then the 
Indian Agent at Detroit. Woodward's materials, ar- 
ranged differently from those in Jouett's report, form a 
chronological table showing the date of every addition of 
settlers to each site, the number of farms at each, and 
whether within the American title. The number of 
farms indicated by Jouett and Woodward is approxi- 
mately the same as the number of claims in the survey of 
1810 shown on the Greeley map. 
24. The French acre was a square, with a side of about eleven 
and two-thirds rods, equal to about four-fifths of an 
American acre. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 105 

In frontage they varied from about 23 to 58 rods; but 
almost uniformly they reached forty French acres^^ 
back from the water. There were some farms of 400 
acres, but this large area appears to have resulted from 
dupHcation of the 200 acre farm by adding an equal 
parallelogram onto the rear of the one in front. ^"^ This 
added part is what is referred to after the survey as 
"the second concession," usually a wooded area useful 
for timber and firewood ; as will be seen later it explains 
the jagged rear boundary lines observable on the maps 
of the French claims. On the Raisin and Clinton 
rivers these irregularities were partly due to bogs 
extending along the rivers on either side and forming 
a natural rear boundary for the farms. -^ Of the French 
farms, most however fall into the second class, of 120 
French acres (96 American acres), with a frontage of 
about 23 rods and a depth of about 467 rods. 

Another characteristic of the French settlement was 
its compactness. These farms all fronting on the water 
were with few exceptions close together, so that the 
side boundary of one farm made one boundary of a 
neighboring farm. This is the feature which gives 
to the maps of the French claims their well-known 
"gridiron" appearance. In this arrangement a domi- 

25. About 467 rods. The early accounts appear to make the 

acre a linear measure. Thus a farm is designated as 
"two acres front and forty acres deep." In Jouett's 
report, a few illustrations are given of variations between 
25 and 180 acres in depth. 

26. On the Raisin, the Ecorse and the Rouge, farms of this size 

were reported by Jouett. See Woodward's explanation 
of this area in the report referred to in note 23. 

27. A.S.P., Public Lands, I, 190, 192. The Greeley map shows 

the farms on the Clinton farthest inland as having a very 
large frontage but as extending only a little way from 
the river. 



106 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

nant trait in the character of the French-Canadians 
appears, a fondness for close neighbors. Besides 
facihtating sociabihty, it enabled them to unite quickly 
against enemies. On the rivers it enabled the settlers 
up stream to get closer to the lake shore. 

The small size of the average Canadian-French farm 
corresponded with the general character of Canadian- 
French farming. Its small scale fostered little desire 
to acquire land; the whole of a French farm, small as 
it was, was rarely cultivated,"^ and this was especially 
true of the larger ones. The improvements were 
correspondingly meager. On the typical farm there 
was a small dwelling on the river bank, a garden near 
it, with usually an orchard, and back of this a field 
of wheat or corn. In the rear, covering the larger part 
of the land, was a stretch of forest, principal^ for 
firewood. 

The part of the farm to which the French settler 
seems to have given the most care was the orchard. 
Referring to the farms south of Detroit, Jouett says 
their owners were ' ' assiduously careful ' ' of their orchards 
and produced a surplus of fruit and cider for exporta- 
tion to the settlements on the Canada shore. Pears 
and apples of first quality were raised in great abund- 
ance, and peaches and cherries were only second in 
importance. ^^ "Almost every farm has an orchard 

28. A.S.P., Public Lands, I, 264. 

29. "The crowning glory of the French orchard was the pear 

tree," says Bela Hubbai^d, Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 356. 
Brown speaks of cider and peach brandy made on the 
Raisin for exportation. Western Gazetteer, 161. Evans 
remarks (1818) that Michigan promised to be "a great 
cider country." Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VIII, 
221. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 107 

of old but beautiful apple trees," says the Gazette 
of July 30, 1819, "the produce of which furnishes, 
generally, the greatest share of the owner's gains;" 
yet it speaks of the orchards as "almost totally 
neglected. "^° McKenney in his Tour to the Lakes 
(1826), speaking of the French between Detroit and 
Grosse Pointe, records that they "appear reconciled 
to let the earth rest and the houses go to decay 
around them; and the orchards to decline and die."^^ 
Granting that the French took some care of their 
orchards, their farming must have appeared to the 
enterprising Yankee in other respects exceedingly 
shiftless. A typical illustration is the lack of care of 
the soil. Jouett reports that he found in many places 
an exhausted soil where apparently it had once been 
fertile. It appears to have been a general custom in 
the settlement to haul the manure out onto the ice 
in the winter so that it might float away in the spring. ^'^ 
To quote a contemporary nimiber of the Gazette, 
"The farms in this Territory are very old, and as the 
proprietors of them seldom or never have strengthened 
the soil by manure, they are in a great measure ex- 
hausted."^^ Bela Hubbard declares that "in some 
cases even the barns were removed to avoid the piles 
that had accumulated."^^ Soap-making was a 

30. See, for other examples, the issues of Sept. 19 and Nov. 7, 

1817; also Nov. 5, 1819. 

31. McKenney, Tour to the Lakes, 126. 

32. Amer. Hist. Assoc., Papers, III, 314. 
d,Z. July 30, 1819. 

34. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 352. Landmarks of Detroit (p. 145) 
takes exception to Hubbard's statement, but without 
convincing evidence to the contrary. 



108 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

"Yankee novelty. "^^ These reports are in keeping 
with the alleged ignorance of spinning and weaving 
which led settlers to throw away the wool when 
shearing their sheep. ^"^ 

The average French farmer used much the same 
implements and worked the soil in mvich the same 
manner as did the Indians." A crude wooden plow 
was pushed, instead of pulled, by oxen attached to it 
with a rawhide thong passed about their horns. Corn 
was planted with no regard to regularity of rows. 
Wagons were not known; the universal vehicle was a 
two- wheeled cart. Stock was confined, usually, to 
one pony which was turned into the neighboring woods 
for such living as it could find, and was caught when 
wanted. ^^ 

The common note struck in Jouett's report for almost 
all of the settlements is that of indolence and wretched- 
ness. Conditions appear not to have improved greatly 
over those witnessed at Detroit by Croghan in 1765, 
who says, "All the people here are generally poor 
wretches, a lazy, idle people, depending chiefly upon 

35. Amer. Hist. Assoc, Papers, III, 314. 

36. This, if true, was probably so only of the lowest classes. 

Says a writer in the Mich. Hisi. Colls., IV, 74: "The 
spinning wheel was constantly used by the women; they 
made a sort of linsey-woolsey which was the principal 
cloth used by the habiians for their dress." Hvibbard 
says {Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 364), that knitting, sewing 
and spinning were taught along with reading, writing and 
arithmetic at the Academy in Detroit. 

37. Hubbard, in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 353, 354. 

38. See the description of the Fr^isnch farms and farming in 

Mich. Pol. Science Assoc, Publications , III, 168-169; 
also James V. Campbell in the Western Magazine of 
History, IV, 375, and Cooley's Michigan, 232-237. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 109 

the savages for their subsistence; though the land, 
with httle labor, produces plenty of grain, they scarcely 
raise as much as will supply their wants, in imitation 
of the Indians, whose manners and customs they have 
adopted, and cannot subsist without them."^^ The 
Gazette of January 22, 1819, comments editorially that 
the farmers near Detroit, with two hundred acres of 
land, buy bread of the baker and vegetables of their 
more enterprizing neighbors. A report from the 
Detroit Land Office (1805) charges that "they never 
do that today which can be delayed until tomorrow. "■^° 
Alluding to the settlement on the Clinton, Jouett refers 
the poverty there to "that indolence and want of 
skill in agriculture which so conspicuously marks the 
Canadian character"^^ in this country." Of the one 
on the Ecorse he says that though "grass and wheat 
are astonishingly luxuriant and nature requires to be 
but little aided to produce in abundance all the neces- 
saries of life, yet the people are poor beyond conception, 
and no description could give an adequate idea of their 
servile and degraded situation."^- The contempt of 
the "Yankee" for this condition is preserved in the 
epithet "muskrat Frenchman," in allusion to the hut- 
like dwellings of the poorer classes.'*'^ 

On the whole, the largest settlements were the most 
prosperous, especially those on the Detroit and Raisin 

39. Croghan's Journal, in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, I, 

152. 

40. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 267. 

41. Ibid., I, 192. 

42. Ibid., I, 191. 

43. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 352. See Jouett's description of those 

on Otter and Sandy creeks. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 
190. 



no ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

rivers. In the large settlement on the shore im- 
mediately north of Detroit, says Jouett, the houses 
were ''once comparatively of the better kind," though 
rapidly decaying. Below Detroit he found the houses 
"tolerably good." Judge Campbell and Bela Hubbard 
recall what in the early days was a picturesque witness 
of French husbandry there, the many windmills and 
watermills, "most of which were grist mills "^"^ for which 
grain was furnished by the neighboring lands. The 
farms on the middle St. Clair are described by Jouett 
as "fertile and well improved, "^^ and some of the 
settlers on the CHnton were "agreeably situated." 
On the Raisin he found "tolerably well improved" 
farms with comfortable houses of hewn logs and 
generally the necessary outbuildings. McLaughlin 
says that the French on the Raisin were on the whole 
more ignorant and less thrifty than those about 
Detroit — referring apparently to conditions after the 
War of 1812.4« 

The industrial and economic conditions in the 
French settlements reveal a people of primitive life 

44. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 359; II, 103. 

45. This was doubtless partly due to the enterprise of the De- 

troit firm of Meldnun & Park, which made improve- 
ments there. 

46. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 88. The proportion of British or 

other than Canadian-French inhabitants in these set- 
tlements, appears to have been very small. Jouett 
specifically mentions three exceptions on the Raisin 
River, and four on the Clinton. The latter, he says, 
were "Englishmen of industry and enterprise." On the 
St. Clair, he reports all as "Canadians." There seem to 
have been a larger number of exceptions in the Ecorse 
and Rouge settlements, if we may judge from his men- 
tioning that the "majority were Canadian French." 



S-2 



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THE EASTERN SHORE 111 

and habits. In the words of a contemporary com- 
menting on the French of the lower Raisin in 1819, 
"The old inhabitants are a very indolent set of people, 
the lower class of which depend almost wholly on 
hunting for their living. Those of a higher class make 
good dependence on the fur trade with the Indians 
which is tolerable good at present. "^^ Their skill in 
hunting and trapping and their usually pleasant 
relations with the Indians formed a large asset of the 
fur companies, and in these pursuits the French often 
showed much force of character.'*^ Contact with wild 
life in the forests of Canada and the Northwest through 
many generations could not but give a decided bent 
to their thought, character and habits. And this 
bent was strengthened by restrictions of the French 
Government, intended apparently to insure their servi- 
tude to the interests of the seigneurs in the fur trade.*^ 
The British Government seems to have had quite as 
little interest in these settlements so far as concerned 
their agricultural development. It allowed no new 
lands to be taken up without in each case express 
permission from the king.^° A statement made by 
Mr. Lymbruner, agent of the Province of Canada, 
seems to represent the early sentiment of the British 

47. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 485. 

48. Ibid., II, 104. 

49. See a list of conditions imposed in French grants to Detroit 

settlers in 1707. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 182; also 
Lanman, History of Michigan, 66, 318-319; and the 
Magazine of Western History, IV, 375. But Judge Camp- 
bell believes these restrictions were so little insisted upon 
as never to have been burdensome in practice. Mich. 
Hist. Colls., II, 101. 

50. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 269. Royal proclamation of Oct. 

7, 1763. 



112 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Government towards the whole region environing 
Detroit, who in 1793 before the House of Commons 
declared it his opinion that the obstacles to Detroit's 
growth were so great that they "must greatly impede 
the progress of settlement and cultivation for ages 
to come."" 

A contemporary, Judge Woodward, has left a pleasing 
description of the Canadian-French settlers in Mich- 
igan. According to his sketch we see them habitually 
gay and lighthearted, yet pious; honest beyond com- 
parison; generous, hospitable and often refined; and 
with no cares from "ambition or science."^'' The 
apparent lack of ambition in the Michigan Canadians 
was owing largely to the paternalistic regime under 
which they and their ancestors had so long lived 
which accustomed them to look for everything to be 
done for them or to be imposed upon them by some 
authority from without. It would therefore require 
some time to adjust themselves to the "Yankee" 
idea of paying taxes to support schools and govern- 
ment, and it was to be expected that they would not 
take kindly to those successive stages of government 
which should entail upon them additional expense. 
The Frenchman's contentment with the slow-going 
ways of his ancestors was doubtless due to his setting 
no great value on time, of which he had an abundance. 
He could not well understand the spirit of hurry that 
characterized the "practical, hard-working, money- 

51. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 336. The particular obstacle 

was the obstruction offered by Niagara Falls to eastward 
transportation. 

52. A. S. P., Public Lands, I, 264. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 113 

getting Yankee, ' ' which disturbed him.^=^ His ' ' conser- 
vatism," his opposition to change, was an expression 
of this satisfaction with things as they were. These 
settlers were apparently unconscious of their poverty 
and consequently would not sell their meager improve- 
ments for several times the real value.^^ This 
was in some degree a real hindrance to settlement, 
as when they refused to allow their farms to be 
disturbed by the needed widening or extending of 
streets in Detroit. Again, they naturally adhered to 
their mother tongue, necessarily somewhat of a barrier 
between them and the eastern immigrants,^^ as were 
also their manners and customs, which are said to 
have been those of a hundred years before.^'"' Class 

53. See Mr. Campau's comparison of the French Canadian and 

the American or Englishman in this respect, as quoted in 
the Magazine of Western History, X, 395. 

54. McLaughHn, Higher Education in Michigan, 10. 

55. "Their so-called patois is the old French tongue continued 

almost unchanged, like the manners and habits of those 
who use it." Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 364. The Gazette 
published several columns in French in its earlier issues, 
and reprinted important notices or documents often in 
parallel French and English columns. In that paper for 
November 1, 1825, the "French Gazette" is advertised, 
subscriptions to be received at the office of the Gazette, 
but so far as the writer knows this was not published. 
In 1805 when the commissioners of the Land Office 
wished to employ someone, other than the clerk of the 
Board, to translate the French deeds, it is stated that 
they could find no one sufficiently quaHfied in whom 
confidence could be placed. A. S. P., Public Lands, 
I, 267. 

56. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 359. Bela Hubbard says that "the 

Canadians were speedy to adopt the superior imple- 
ments and modes of cultivation used by the Anglo- 
Saxon settlers." Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 353. The editor - 
15 



114 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

consciousness was in some measure fostered by the 
traditions and services of the CathoKc Church. 

Though the accounts lay emphasis on the indolence 
of the French-Canadians in Michigan as farmers, these 
settlers appear to have been anything but spiritless 
or heavy. These scions of the "careless, laughter- 
loving Frenchman" seem to have enjoyed life keenly. 
Bela Hubbard says that in the gloom following the 
speculation of 1835-37 "there was no lack of French 
gaiety, which arose to an unusual degree when times 
were at their worst, in the winter of 1841."^^ The 
keynote of their life even among the poorer classes 
appears to have been social enjoyment. The socia- 
bility of the French-Canadians has become proverbial 
and many are the tributes to their hospitality even 
to strangers. The sharp contrast between the early 
French and English relations with the Indians is 
instructive. In the words of Judge Campbell, "The 
people though pious were not bigoted, and their 
associations with men of a different race and belief 
led to no difficulties."^^ This promised well for happy 
social relations between the French and American 
settlers of Michigan. 

At least among the better classes of the French 
settlers there was a considerable degree of refinement. 

56. Con. ials of the Gazette were continually admonishing the 

French to improve their time and opportunities in agri- 
culture. 

57. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 360. 

58. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 104. For the social conditions and 

customs, particularly of the poorer classes of the French 
Canadians in Michigan, see Lanman, Michigan, 55-56; 
Wing, History of Monroe County, 44-45. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 115 

The Catholic priests, men of broad culture, refinement 
and learning, had much influence over the lives of 
their charges. As a whole the French were ingorant 
of books, but they were neither boorish nor unintel- 
Hgent, and they appear to have had as high a 
standard of morality as is usually found on the 
frontier. 

In keeping with the personal honesty of the French 
was their loyalty to the governments under which 
they successively lived. Judge Campbell says of 
their loyalty to England, "It was the recognition by 
the French of their new allegiance that disconcerted 
Pontiac and destroyed his plans. "^^ He finds no 
evidence of their alleged disaffection towards the 
United States later, and Bela Hubbard recalls that 
their indignation over Hull's surrender was still warm 
when he came to Detroit in the early twenties. ^"^ 

The French were devout Catholics. One of the 
strongest influences in the early days of the American 
occupation of Michigan was that of Father Gabriel 
Richard, whose life in the settlements was one of 
unselfish sacrifice in the interests of both Protestants 
and Catholics. "^^ It has been unjustly alleged that 

59. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 103. 

60. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 361, 363, and Bela Hubbard, Memorials 

of a Half Centtiry (N. Y. and Lond., 1887), 142. 

61. Elliott, "Sketch of the Life and Times of Rev. Gabriel 

Richard of Detroit, Michigan," in the American Catholic 
Historical Researches, XVI, No. 4, (October, 1899); 
Girardin, "Life and Times of Rev. Gabriel Richard," 
Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 481. The Free Press for September 
27, 1832, contains a biographical sketch and notice of his 
death. His portrait is in Sheldon's Early History of 
Michigan (N. Y., 1856), opposite p. 205. Gabriel 
Richard was a native of Saintes, France, on his mother's 



116 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Father Richard was not interested in the education 
of the French; his report in 1808 on the condition of 
education in Detroit and the other settlements made 
for the information of the Territorial officials shows 
that he deplored the low state of education and 
earnestly desired its betterment. <^2 At Spring Hill 
below Detroit he fostered an academy which gained 
much reputation in that day for its liberal curric- 
ulum;''"'^ he fostered Catholic schools at Detroit, 
Springwells and on the Clinton River. "^^ 

Excepting Detroit the founding of these settlements 
does not reach back much beyond the period of the 
American R e volution. '^^ The first French settlements 

61. Con. side a descendant of Bishop Bossuet. He came to 

Detroit as priest and teacher in 1798, building St. Anne's 
Church after the fire of 1805. He was a delegate to 
Congress from Michigan in 1823, and gave his Hfe in the 
service of the cholera sufferers during the epidemic of 
1832. ^ 

62. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 485-486, and McLaughHn, Higher 

Education in Michigan, 15. 

63. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 364. 

64. The general condition of education among the French is 

reflected in the often quoted extract from an article in 
the Gazette, August 8, 1817, purporting to be confidential 
advice from one of their number ; it reads in part : "Fran- 
cais du Territoire de Michigan : Vous devriez com- 
mencer immediatement a donner une education a vos 
enfans. Dans peu de terns il y aura dans ce territoire 
autant de yankees que de Francais, et si vous ne faites 
pas instruire vos enfans, tous les emplois seront donner 
aux yankees." But the fact that the French were sup- 
posed to be able to read this has some significance. 

65. The British post on the St. Clair River held by Patrick 

Smclair from 1765, seems an exception. He is said to 
have secured from the Indians 3759 acres of land, from 
which he cut much pine timber. In 1782, on leaving 
the country, he deeded his land to a Canadian, Votieur, 
from whom it was secured at an auction sale by the firm 



THE EASTERN SHORE 117 

in Michigan outside of Detroit seem to have been 
made immediately above and below that point. In 
the years during the Revolutionary War from 1776 to 
1783 settlements were made at Grosse Isle and on the 
Ecorse and the Rouge, and large purchases of a specu- 
lative nature were made in the vicinity of the Raisin.*^'' 

65. Con. of Meldrum & Park at Detroit; they held it at the time 

of Jouett's report. For Patrick Sinclair, and the post 
at this place, see Jenks' History of St. Clair County, I, 
92 et seq. 

66. In 1776, Pierre Francois Combe bought about 4000 acres on 

the Ecorse, and placed his settlers on it very soon after- 
ward. In the same year William McComb bought the 
same amount on Grosse Isle and Stony Island. In 1779, 
8000 acres were purchased on Otter Creek. In the fol- 
lowing year Joseph Benac secured about 6000 acres on 
Sandy Creek, and Francois Navarre secured a similar 
title to between 1200 and 1500 acres on the lower Raisin. 
These purchases are mentioned m A. S. P., P. L.,1, 265, 
and Wing's History of Monroe County, 93. For an 
account of the settlements on Grosse Isle and on the 
Ecorse and the Rouge see Ibid., I, 191, as given by Jouett. 
The titles to the lands purchased on these shores were 
various ; many of them were of such doubtful validity as 
to cause their claimants much anxiety. It was one of 
Jouett's principal duties to investigate and report 
upon them. (A. S. P., P. L., I, 266.) There were 
principally four classes of titles obtained under 
the French. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 264-268; Lanman's 
History of Michigan, 59-61). Of these some were 
based on grants made by the French governors, with 
or without confirmation by the King of France. 
Others were based on assent of the French officers com- 
manding at the forts. A fourth had only long and 
peaceable possession in their favor, accompanied in 
some cases by improvements. In A. S. P., P. L., I, 
270-273, are given lengthy illustrations of these titles 
claimed under the French. There appear to have 
been no French titles to land in Michigan except 
at and near Detroit. (Mick. Hist. Colls., II, 102.) 
Many titles were based on purchase from the Indians. 



118 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

In 1784, immediately following the treaty of peace 
with Great Britain, a large colony under the auspices 
of Francis Navarre settled upon his land on the Raisin." 

66. Con. These seem to have been generally of a few hun- 

dred acres, though there were several varying 
from 5000 to 100,000 acres {A. S. P., P. L., I, 
269). See for illustration of these Indian titles, Ibid., I, 
273, 279. Some lands had in favor of their owners 
some actual improvements; for example, the Meldrum 
& Park pinery, on the St. Clair River, where there 
was a dwelling house, two saw mills, a grist mill and 
a few acres enclosed and cultivated. (A. S. P., P. L., I, 
280). The number of claims in each of the several 
classes varied. The amount of land claimed by actual 
settlement was estimated by the United States land 
commissioners at about 150,000 acres, and about the 
same amovmt was estimated to be claimed by non- 
resident British subjects. (A. S. P., P. L., I, 280). 
About a hundred claims were alleged to be derived from 
the British Government. (For discussion at length see 
A. S. P., P. L., I, 268). Judge Woodward, in a report 
made in 1806, expressed the opinion that there were 
but eight legal titles to land in the whole of Michigan 
Territory. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 283). The attitude of 
the United States Government, however, proved favor- 
able to claims based upon actual improvement. In 
January, 1805, before Michigan became a separate Ter- 
ritory, a petition had been sent to Congress, emanating 
from leading families among the Canadian-French set- 
tlers in Michigan, for confirmation of title to the land 
that had been improved. {A. S. P., P. L., I, 214-215). 
Judge Woodward strongly recommended these claims to 
the Government for confirmation. In 1807 Congress 

67. Francis Navarre was a native of Detroit, born in 1767. It is 

said that his ancestry could be traced to Henry IV of 
France. He appears to have been a personal friend of 
Wayne, Woodward and Cass, the latter appointing him 
an associate justice of the county court in Monroe 
County in 1817. Wing's History of Monroe County, 
93-95, 106. See Ibid., 115, for the inducements which 
Navarre offered to the French Canadians to settle upon 
his land; also Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 318, and VI, 362. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 119 

Settlers now began to come to the St. Clair River, 
but with this exception and that of the first consider- 
able accession of colonists to the Clinton in 1788, 
settlement was sporadic and small from 1784 to the 
period of Wayne's victory over the Indians and the 
Indian treaty at Greenville in 1795.''^ The interCvSt 
of the Government is evident in the two last events 
and had been earlier shown in the organization of the 
Northwest Territory (1787).'^'^ From 1792 to 1797 
immigration was comparatively large, new settlements 

66. Con. made it possible for every claimant to get 640 acres of 
land who could show his claim to have been occupied 
and partly improved prior to July 1, 1796. The claimant 
was to pay the cost of surveying it; the narrow frontage 
would extend each farm many miles from the water 
front, giving him a hinterland of timber for which he 
had little present need, but adding much to the expense 
of the survey ; hence about two miles from the water was 
the usual limitation placed by the Frenchman upon the 
rear extension of his land. When later these lands were 
surveyed by the United States, much land was treated 
as if belonging to the farms fronting the water ; this gave 
rise to what is known as the "lost lands," amounting to 
several thousand acres. It is said that on the Raisin 
only about one in twenty Frenchmen had secured title 
to the whole 640 acres originally offered by the Govern- 
ment. A case frequently cited which became the basis 
of later decisions in these litigations, is that of Bruckner's 
Lessee vs. Lawrence, I Doug. 19. See Wing's History 
of Monroe County for a clear description of the origin of 
the disputed claims; also Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 363-364. 

68. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 

Part 2, pp. 654-655. This treaty gave the United 
States a title to a strip of shore lard about six miles wide, 
including the Rai.sin settlement and land northward to a 
point between Detroit and the Chnton River. The 
limits of this treaty cession are indicated by the dotted 
black line in Ihid., plate CXXXVIII. 

69. Indeed this had been shown in 1784; see Jefferson's plan for 

its government. 



120 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

beginning on Otter and Sandy creeks and new acces- 
sions accruing to the Raisin settlement. ^° Shortly 
after the Jay Treaty with England in 1796 the American 
flag was raised on the Raisin, and then came the first 
American settlers ;^^ but between that time and the 
organization of Michigan as a separate Territory 
no new settlements appear to have been made. By 
far the largest immigration appears to have come after 
the peace of 1783 in the period of American rule.^^ 

Three-quarters of a century before these settlements 
(1701) Detroit was founded by La Motte Cadillac. ^=^ 

70. Jouett, in A. S. P., P. L., I, 190. 

71. Wing, History of Monroe County, 38. 

72. A. S. P., P. L., I, 281. According to this report, about 

three-fifths of the French came after 1783. 

73. For the founding of Detroit, see C. M. Burton, Cadillac's 

Village (Detroit, 1896). A very good popular treatment 
of the life of Cadillac, with some criticism of the sources, 
is given in Landmarks of Detroit and Michigan, pp. 21-26. 
The Jesuit Relations (Thwaites Ed.), LXIX, 306-310, con- 
tains brief biographical sketches of the most important 
of the first French settlers at Detroit. The early history 
of the settlement is sketched by Richard R. Elliott in 
the United States Catholic Magazine, I, 345-365; III, 
264-273; IV, 113-124. See akso Charles Whittlesey's 
"Indian Affairs around Detroit in 1706," in the Western 
Reserve Historical Society, Tracts, I, No. 8. The Jesuit 
Relations contains numerous references to Detroit, prin- 
cipally in volumes 68, 69, 70, and 71; see Index volume 
LXXII, p. 198, under "Detroit." Landmarks, I, 193, 
gives a good summary of the French period. In this 
work, the early promoters of the village are said to have 
met substantial opposition from the Jesuits at Mackinac 
and from the Montreal merchants, the latter acting out 
of fear of Detroit's future rivalry (pp. 58-67). The large 
essentials of the British period (1763-1783) are surv^eyed 
in pp. 194-244. The neglect of Detroit by the British is 
attributed largely to the selfishness of British tradesmen 
(pp. 194-200). A vivid description is given of shocking 



THE EASTERN SHORE 121 

i 

in 1803 its actual settlement seems to have covered 
about four acres. Jouett's picture of it is one of general 
decay, not excepting the stockade which enclosed the 

tillage and fort, supposedly its protection against 
the Indians. The houses, fronting on narrow straight 
streets are with few exceptions described as low, 

'inelegant and in a state of decay. '^'^ In 1805 fire 

73. Con. barbarities of the Indian allies of the British (pp. 227- 
I 237); see especially the copy of an intercepted letter 

from a British officer to Lieutenant Governor Hamilton, 
invoicing a consignment of scalps (p. 227). A descrip- 
tion of the Detroit of 1780 is given at p. 220. It is said 
1 that in 1782, with the approach of peace, some British 

' sympathizers, mainly people of superior birth and edu- 

cation, removed to Canada and settled along the Thames, 
I the Detroit and the St. Clair Rivers; but many stayed, 

in the belief that Great Britain would hold the North- 
west. The population in 1782 is given as 2,190, which 
I is said to have fallen off to 500 after the Jay Treaty m 

1 1796 (pp. 253-254). British activities at Detroit be- 

tween these dates are sketched in pp. 238-251. On 
pages 255-257, Detroit is described as it appeared m 
I 1796 to Isaac Weld, an Irishman who visited the 

I post in October, and whose book, from which the de- 

I scription is taken, appeared in 1799. According to him, 

! two-thirds of the inhabitants of Detroit then were 

French, and there were about three hundred dwellings 
in the village. See also Campbell's Outlines, p. 213, and 
compare the description of Detroit in 1793 given by 
Rev. O. M. Spencer as recorded in Sheldon's Michigan, 
pp. 361-363. It is stated in Landmarks (pp. 269-271) 
that when it was seen that Great Britain would lose 
Michigan, British land speculators tried to get posession 
of vast estates by purchase from the Indians and con- 
firmation of the purchases through bribery in Congress. 
The example of the John Askin purchase of 1795 is 
cited. For the chief events at Detroit immediately pre- 
ceding the organization of Michigan Territory, see the 
same work, pp. 251-268, and compare Sheldon's Mich- 
igan, 367-374. 
74. A.S.P., P.L.,1, 191. 



122 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

destroyed all the buildings and most of the personal 
property of the inhabitants.'^^ The population at 
that time has been estimated variously. The Terri- 
torial census of 1805^*^ gives 525 heads of families; 
Ross and Catlin appear to place the total population 
at about 600." 

All of Detroit that was material was swept away in 
the fire of 1805, audit began life anew practically with 
the beginning of Michigan as a Territory; indeed, the 
coming of the new Territorial officials in that year 
marked the dawn of American settlement in Mich- 
igan. ^^ From 1812 to 1815 the growth of the village 
was seriously interrupted by war,'^^ and thereafter it 

75. Official report of Governor Hull, Ibid., I, 247. 

76. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 335. See also the names 

(about forty) signed to the losses sustained by the in- 
habitants of the village in the fire of 1805, Mich. Hist. 
Colls., I, 347. Compare Judge Witherell's "Inhabi- 
tants of Detroit in 1806" in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 344B- 
345. 

77. Landmarks, 278. 

78. The new government began on the second day of July, 

1805, ^.5. P., P. L., I, 247. 

79. A muster roll of 1812 (Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 553), and a tax- 

roll for the same year {Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 409), shows 
the population to have been still mainly French, and the 
figures in the enumeration for 1818, 1110, probably 
represent mainly the same element {Mich. Hist. Colls., 
I, 346). The United States census figures for 1810 giving 
Detroit a population of 2,227 are said {Gazette, January 
29, 1819), to have represented the "District of Detroit," 
a district greater than the area of Wayne County in 
1819. See extracts from articles by B. F. H. Witherell 
about conditions in Detroit at the close of the war, in 
Mich._ Hist. Colls., XIII, 503-507. The Journal and 
Michigan Advertiser for August 6, 1834, has an article 
on "Detroit in 1815-1816," giving a minute description 
of the situation and character of individual houses and 
stores. The Fort and its suiToundings are described in 
Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 368-371. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 123 

grew slowly until the land sales of 1818 attracted the 
settlers who were to bring the needed stimulus to 
agriculture, trade, commerce and manufacture. 

For the future convenience and appearance of Detroit 
the fire of 1805 was doubtless fortunate. ^° Acting 
upon advice from Congress, the Governor and Judges^^ 
planned a new city in which the narrow streets of the 
old French village were superseded by wide avenues, ^^ 
As a result, though the plan was later somewhat 
modified, ^^ few cities in the United States have fairer 
streets than those of Detroit today. Thomas 
McKenney, author of Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes, 

80. CM. Burton, "Some Benefits that accrued to Detroit from 

the devastating fire of 1805," Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 
431-436. The new Governor, WilHam Hull, immed- 
iately upon his arrival opened a sale of land to the former 
inhabitants of the village. The sales which were made 
by auction with no payments required down, are said 
to have brought an average of four cents per square foot. 
A. S. P., P. L.,l, 248. See Farmer's History of Detroit, 
I, 26-31, for a detailed discussion of the functioning of 
the Governor and Judges as a land board. 

81. The official title of the new government. 

82. Territorial Laws, I, 283, Septeinber 13, 1806. It is said to 

have been modelled upon that of the city of Washington 
whither the seat of government had been recently re- 
moved, and for which the real author of the new plan, 
Judge Woodward, had a great admiration. Two of the 
principal avenues of the present city are reminiscent of 
Judge Woodward and of President Jefferson, his patron, 
both of whom were Virginians. Woodward had prac- 
ticed law in Washington since 1795, and was there when 
that city was laid out. The plan of Washington is 
said to be reminiscent of our early friendly relations with 
France, being patterned after the "spider-web" plan of 
Versailles. Landmarks, 273. An article in the Gazette 
for July 18, 1823, speaks of the city as having been laid 
out on the plan of Philadelphia. 

83. By Abijah Hull, a surveyor, and relative of Governor Hull. 

Landmarks, 273. 



124 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

who visited Detroit in 1826, apparently did not wholly 
approve of the plan. "It looks pretty on paper," 
he admits, "but is fanciful; and resembles one of those 
octagonal spider webs which you have seen in a dewey 
morning.^'* The citizens of Detroit would do well, in 
my opinion, and their posterity would thank them for 
it, were they to reduce the network of that plan to 
something more practical and regular. ' ' ^^ And his view 
seems to have been shared by the editor of the Gazette, 
who says that "everyone regretted the plan of our 
city ' ' which none but ' ' a wild and eccentric mind ' ' could 
have evolved. ^"^ One objection urged seems to reflect 
the spirit of utilitarianism accompanying the tide of 
immigration; the plan involved "a great w^aste of 
ground," and it could not be enjoyed "by the present 
generation" because the beauty of the plan depended 
on compactness of buildings. A more serious objec- 
tion was urged in the memorial of Detroit citizens 
to Congress in 1829 which recited the confusion of 
titles resulting from deeds granted by the Governor 
and Judges covering the original streets. ^^ 

In connection with this factor in the settlement of 
the city there should be mentioned a serious drawback 
due to the composition of the streets. The soil was 
formed of a finely divided clay which was mixed with 
a black loam, and when it was saturated, as it usually 

84. The Greeley map (1810) shows eight principal streets 

radiating at regular angles from a central square. The 
three streets leading west from the square are crossed at 
a little distance from the shore by a street parallel to it. 

85. McKenney, Tour to the Lakes, 141. 

86. Gazette, August 22, 1826. 

87. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824- 

1843), 190, 404. 



PLAN OF DETROIT, 1807 
(Burton's Building of Detroit, 26) 



The original spider-web plan" of Detroit commonlv bearing the name of Augustus 
B ^^oo(iwar<l, one of the first Territorial judges of Michigan, was drafted in ISOfi hv 
the Detroit .surveyor Abijah Hull. In 1807 it was made part of a report to Congress 
was mislaKl, and not found till 1909, when a copy was .secured by Mr. C M Burton of 
iJetroit from which the above was photographed. An original copv is in the Litirarv of 
t ongress. See p. 123. - i . 



THE EASTERN SHORE 125 

was in the spring and autumn, it made a mud so 
adhesive and deep as to put the streets almost out of 
service. The mud was so bad that it is said to have 
been often necessary to use a horse to get from one 
side of the street to the other i^'"^ there were neither 
pavements nor crosswalks in this period. 

The only means of ingress or egress to Detroit by 
land was along a road passing near the shore, which 
for a large part of the year was scarcely less muddy 
than the city streets. By this road in 1818 the mail 
was supposed to arrive once a week, but it was often 
delayed. The importance of the mails was one of 
the chief incentives to the improvement not only of 
this, but of all roads in the Territory. Prompt mail 
service was a source of great concern to the local 
newspapers, which depended upon it for eastern and 
foreign news ; and when the issue of the papers was held 
over, as it often w^as, an editorial explanation was 
pretty sure to appear expressing disappointment and 
urging the need of better roads for the mail service. 
It was iTLore than a decade, how^ever, before there was 
much improvement.^^ 

The frontier character of life in Detroit in 1818 is 
reflected in primitive conditions on every hand. 

88. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 471. For street legislation by the 

Governor and Judges see Territorial Laws, I, 286, 289. 
See also Proceedings of the Board of Trustees of the City 
of Detroit, 11-12. 

89. For example of later complaints see the Gazette, March 12, 

1824. For the state of this road at that time see Mich. 
Hist. Colls., I, 412, 496, 501. Cf. Brown, Western Gazet- 
teer, 166-168. The isolation of Detroit in the winter is 
reflected in an advertisement by Joseph Fairbanks 
(Gazette, January 1, 1819) who "will keep in the winter 
a good span of horses and sleigh which he will hire to 



126 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Detroit was the center of a flourishing frontier fur trade ; 
in ordinary merchant trade the common method of 
exchange was barter, and the unit of value was generally 
a pound weight of prime beaver-skin; accounts were 
kept in that currency, °° largely owing to the fact that 
the war had made money scarce. Prices were on the 
whole high, especially on articles imported from the 
eastern states. In a local paper we read, "Since the 
last war, a greater price has been continually paid in 
Detroit for flour, beef, pork, corn, etc., than is paid 
in any market in the United States. "^^ Tea is said 
to have been $3 a pound. ^^ The Gazette for January 
22, 1820, says: "As prices are in our market, a New 
England farmer of common industry and enterprise 
could purchase one or two good farms with the avails 
of his barnyard and vegetable patch for one year."^^ 

89. Con. parties on reasonable terms. He intends to make two 

or three journeys to Buffalo this winter if a sufficient 
nirmber of passengers can be obtained to remunerate 
him." 

90. Landmarks, 431. 

91. Gazette, July 30, 1819. July 17, the best flour is quoted at 

$8 per barrel, and prime pork at from $21 to $24 per 
barrel. Winter quotations in 1832 {Gazette, December 
19), placed best flour at from $5 to to $5.25 per barrel, 
and prime pork at from $8 to $9 per barrel. Schedules 
of prices appear in the Gazette, corrected weekly, for a 
great variety of articles. 

92. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 800. 

93. One turkey would buy one acre of land. Other items are 

given. An "Act regulating the Assize of Bread" {Pro- 
ceedings of the Board of Trustees of the City of Detroit, 
March 25, 1816), appears to have been still in force, fixing 
the price of bread according to a sliding scale based on 
the price of flour. The maximum and minimum prices 
of flour per hundred weight are assumed at $8 and $3; 
when at $8, the weight of the loaf is to be 3 lbs., 6 oz., 



THE EASTERN SHORE 127 

There was as little manufacture as mercantile trade. 
The French way of living created little need for manu- 
factures aside from a few simple articles of domestic 
use. A small quantity of leather was tanned, which 
was marketed mainly at Montreal; the Indians 
furnished mats, dressed deerskins, moccasins, baskets, 
brooms, and some 150,000 pounds of maple sugar 
annually. ^^ A few artisans made trinkets for the 
Indian trade. '■'^ 

The lake commerce of Detroit in 1818 may be 
measured by the shipping belonging to that port, 
which amounted to nearly a third of all the Lake Erie 
shipping owned in the United States. ^"^ The exports 
for that year were sixfold greater than the imports. 
Together they amounted to less than $85, 000. J Im- 
ports amounted to about $15,000. The relatively 
large export trade probably represents furs." 

93. Con. for 25 cents; when at $3, the price is to be 12-| cents for 

a loaf of 3 lbs., 10 oz. See also a long act regulating the 
markets, Ibid., November 20, 1816. 

94. Estwich Evans, an eye witness of trade conditions at 

Detroit in 1818, gives a very good description of them in 
Thwaites' Early Western Travels, VIII, 221. The 
gradual increase of early trade may be estimated by fol- 
lowing the additions to the advertising pages in the 
Gazette (1817-1830), where detailed price lists of articles 
for sale are given by leading stores. 

95. Gazette, July 30, 1819. The same paper for April 3, 1818, 

advertises that a mill is ready for the manufacture of 
flour and lumber on Tremble's Creek five miles above 
Detroit. 

96. This was 849 tons out of a total of 2,334 tons. Gazette, 

January 29, 1819. 

97. Most of the exports, excepting cider, apples, salt and fish, 

appear to have been sent principally to the garrisons at 
Mackinac, Green Bay and Chicago. The imports of 
were derived mainly from Ohio and New York. The 



128 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Of public utilities there were few or none. Drinking- 
water was carried from the river in pails and kept at 
the houses in barrels; these barrels of water were the 
sole protection against fire, and were supplied with 
handles to expedite their use against fire in case of 
need.^^ By an ordinance of the board of trustees 
in 1815 each householder or renter was to provide 
himself with a "wooden vessel" which should hold 
about twenty-five gallons of water, together with a 
pole strong enough to sustain it;^^ but even this amount 
of protection seems not to have been taken seriously, 
if we may judge from the fact that Governor Cass 
was fined for violating the ordinance. ^"'^ The 
agitation for public water works reached the stage of 
first experiments about 1820.^°^ The health of the 
city was endangered by public nuisances which do not 

97. Co7i. elementary nature of this commerce may be judged from 

an abstract of the principal articles of domestic produce 
entered and cleared, coastwise, at the port during 1818. 
Gazette, January 29, 1819. See also the 'Tort of De- 
troit" in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 470; also a sketch of 
Detroit's marine interests prior to 1837 in Landmarks, 
560-563. 

98. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 466; XVIII, 462. 

99. Proceedings of the Board of Trustees, December 4, 1815, 

p. 4. A supplementary act, February 25, 1819, pro- 
vided a primitive fire company. Ibid., 40. See other 
Territorial fire legislation in Territorial Laws, II, 348, 
349; III, 842. 

100. Ibid., 16. See also lists of fines, Ibid., 43, 49, 58, 64, etc., 

also "History of the Old Fire Department" in Mich. 
Hist. Colls., IV, 410-419. 

101. Landmarks, 446-448; and "The Detroit Water Works" in 

Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 466-471. The latter is an anony- 
mous contribution to the Detroit Post and Tribune for 
December 15, 1877, but, if accurate, it is a very clear 
statement of early conditions. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 129 

seem to have been early removed. In contemporary 
opinion they were associated with the excessive 
mortaUty of the epidemics of cholera in 1832 and 1834. 
The "intolerable stench" from the "green stagnant 
pools" and "masses of putridity" dangerous to health 
is deplored by the Gazette of June 22, 1821 ;'°- however, 
not much public service could be expected from an 
annual city revenue of only a little over $250.^°''^ 

Despite these primitive conditions William Darby, 
who had traveled extensively, perceived in Detroit 
in 1818 "all the attributes of a seaport" with "all 
the interior features of a flourishing and cultivated 
community, as much so, equivalent to numbers, as 
any city in the United States ;"^°^ and in the same year 
the traveler Estwich Evans conceived the situation 
promising for a "large and elegant city."^''^ Leaders 
of public opinion at Detroit seem to have been con- 
scious that the year 1818 was opening a new era for 
the city and the Territory, as appears in the articles 
commenting on the rapid settlement during thatyear.^°'' 
It is significant that a census was taken for that year 
by the Detroit Lyceum, whose members were leaders 
Sn the city; it was found that Detroit contained a 

102. In 1820 a tax of 500 days labor was levied "for the purpose 

of removing the nuisance on the border of the Detroit 
River," a nuisance which apparently polluted the drink- 
ing-water. Proceedings of the Board of Trustees, 54. 
See Territorial Laws, III, 901, 902, 940, for other legisla- 
tion regarding public nuisances. 

103. Report of the treasurer of the corporation of the city for 

the year ending May 10, 1819, as given in the Gazette 
for May 21, 1819. 

104. Darby, Tour of the West. 190. 

105. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, VIII, 215. 

106. For example, Gazette, October 16, 4818. 

17 



130 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

population, not including the garrison, of 1,040, with 
142 dwelling houses. ^°^ According to the same auth- 
ority, fifty-one buildings were erected during 1818. 
Significant of the new spirit is a mere list of the organ- 
izations formed in 1817-18, mainly 'n the latter year.^°^ 
The new spirit of enterprise was an invitation to 
eastern laborers and mechanics. In the autumn of 
1819 masons and carpenters received from twelve 
shillings to $2.25 a day, and common laborers $1 a 
day.^°^ In Philadelphia men were working on turn- 
pikes for a shilling a day, while four or five thousand 
people were out of regular employment; harvest 
laborers were working for half of their former wages. 
In Detroit (1821) masons are said to have been obliged 
to discontinue work for lack of brickmakers.^^° At 
least a beginning was being made by organized labor; 

107. Report of a committee of members of the Detroit Lyceum 

to that body, in the Gazette for January 29, 1819. The 
figures are said to be for an area of three-fourths of a 
square mile. The pubhc buildings, about ten, were all 
of brick or stone, the Government storehouse was a 
three-story building. Stores, shops and pubhc buildings 
together numbered 131. 

108. The Protestant Society, Bible Society, Moral and Humane 

Society, Sunday School Association, Library Company 
of the City of Detroit, Mechanical Society, Agricultural 
Society, The Lyceum, Bank of Michigan. 

109. Gazette, September 17, 1819. Women received for house- 

work from $6 to $8 per month. 

110. Ibid., October 12, 1821. According to a report unani- 

mously adopted by a committee of the common council 
in February, 1827, the winter season afforded httle em- 
ployment. It was recommended that the city provide 
work on public improvements until the opening of naviga- 
tion should bring a return of the usual business activity. 
Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824- 
43), 49. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 131 

the Detroit Mechanics' Society, ncorporated in 1820, 
appears to have come into existence at least informally 
in \81S}'' 

The tendency of the French-Canadians to regard 
all "Yankee innovations" with suspicion stood not 
a little in the way of Detroit's material progress. 
The elder Antoine Beaubien, it is said, forcibly resisted 
the surveyors who outlined the opening of the city's 
main thoroughfare, Jefferson Avenue, through his 
property."" In 1832 a committee of the common 
council reported that Joseph Campau refused to 
receive the sum assessed to him for damages due to 
the enlarging of Griswold Street. -^^^ A New York 
visitor who passed through Detroit in 1834 says that 
the French were not disposed either to sell or improve 
their property. To quote his comment: "Many of 
the farms now cross the streets of Detroit at right 
angles at the upper end of the town, and of course, 
offer on either side a dozen building lots of great value. 
The original owners, however, persist in occupying 
them with their frail wood tenements and almost 
valueless improvements, notwithstanding large sums 
are continually offered for the merest slice in the world 
off the end of their long-tailed patrimonies.""* Recent 
writers offer the apology that the French had great 
provocation, in the manner in which their wishes were 

111. Territorial Laws, I, 794. The names of members are there 

given. See a notice of the society's meeting in the 
Gazette, July 17, 1818. 

112. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 500. 

113. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824- 

43), 219. The damages were assessed at $2,160. 

114. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 120-121. 



132 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

overridden ;^^^ a contemporary accounts for their cau- 
tion by their experience in having been vSO many 
times cheated."® 

The city profited much by its position at the very 
door of the new Territory. It became a rendezvous 
for settlers and a clearing-house of ideas about the 
interior. Frequently settlers who intended to go to 
the interior or further west to Wisconsin and Illinois 
made only tentative plans until they should reach 
Detroit, where many were induced to settle within 
its limits or in its vicinity. The reaction of the 
agricultural settlements was soon to become a positive 
and strong stimulus to settlement in the city, which 
in turn would put new life currents circulating through 
the rural districts."^ 

Compared with the earlier days the period beginning 
with the land sales and the opening of steam naviga- 
tion on Lake Erie showed rapid progress; but imagina- 
tion could easily overdraw the picture. It was not 
until 1822 that a second steamboat appeared on the 
Lakes, which on its first arrival at Detroit brought 
only ninety-four passengers. The land sales attracted 
a considerable number of settlers; but there appears 

115. Landmarks, 284. 

116. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 485. 

117. As quoted above, high prices were used as an argument to 

encourage the immigration of farmers. It was urged 
that Ohio farmers made a good profit on stock even after 
paying the cost of transportation. In 1818 1,042 beef 
cattle and 1,435 hogs were supplied to Detroit from 
Ohio. Gazette, January 29, 1819. See also an editorial 
of January 22, 1819. Efforts were made also to stimulate 
the French farmers; see, for instance, the French portion 
of the Gazette for August 22, 1817. 



^ THE EASTERN SHORE 133 

to be no proof for the frequent statement that there 
was a great inrush of settlers from the very beginning. 
There were many signs of an eastern element in the 
population, among which was the formation of the 
First Protestant Society in Detroit, with about a 
dozen members. ^^^ City lots near the Capitol build- 
ing were quoted in Janaury 1824 as selHng at $100, 
and an advance of a hundred per cent was anticipated 
during the next season. ^^^ The city boundaries were 
extended^ ^° and apparently a new interest in local 
government is expressed in the new city charter of 
1824 creating a common council. ^'^^ By a census 

118. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 420-422. The constitution of this 

society is there given, with about twenty signatures. 
By 1825 it seems to have had forty-nine members. 
Ibid., I, 423. 

119. Gazette, January 2, 1824. 

120. Territorial Laws, II, 221. For other extensions of the 

boundary in the Territorial period see Ibid., I, 283, 535, 
875; II, 339,480,913. 

121. Territorial Laws, II, 221. Interesting features to settlers 

were the provisions regarding the franchise and the 
powers of the council, especially over taxation. Voters 
must be freemen of the city having the qualification of 
electors of members of the Territorial legislature; they 
must have resided in the city one year next preceding 
the election, and be residents of the city at the time of 
the election. For provisions existing since the establish- 
ment of the government under the board of trustees in 
1815, see Proceedings of the Board of Trustees, Acts of 
October 24, sec. 6, and May 3, 1821, sec. 1; also Terri- 
torial Laws, 1, 314. The freemen of the city had direct 
control over taxation. A tax on the real and personal 
estate of all freemen within the city could be levied by 
the majority vote of the freemen assembled at a meeting 
called pursuant to notice by the mayor or recorder with 
the advice and consent of any two of the aldermen. 
Ibid., II, 226. For later additions and modifications see 
Ibid., II, 347, 349, 640; III, 1048, 1122. Apparently 
nonresidents cotild not be so taxed. The question of 



134 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

"recently taken" which appeared in the Gazette for 
January 2, 1824, Detroit had a population of 1,325, 
exclusive of the garrison. Some five hundred people 
were living outside in the immediate vicinity. ^^^ 

With the opening of the Erie Canal evidence of new 
life in the city increased more rapidly and a growing 
consciousness of competition with other lake ports, 
especially with Cleveland, appears. ^-^ Fifty-eight new 

121. Con. the legality of taxing their property came up in 1832 

over the raising of money to defray expenses incurred 
by the city during the epidemic of cholera. Journal of 
the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824-43), 223. 
Other powers granted to the Council by the Act of 1824 
are specified in Territorial Laws, II, 223, and supple- 
mentary powers in Ibid., II, 342, 345, 348, 570; III, 935, 
938, 939, 1123, 1269, 1422. The mayor, recorder and 
the five aldermen were required to be freeholders. Ibid., 
II, 221. The recorder, clerk and treasurer were to be 
appointed "by the mayor and five aldermen or by a 
majority of them. By an act of 1827 seven aldermen 
were to be elected and all ministerial officers were to be 
appointed and removed only by the common council. 
Ibid., II, 571. For charcteristics of the government es- 
tabhshed in 1806, see Ibid., IV, 3. The first city charter 
was granted in 1802. The civil history of Detroit as 
view^ed by a competent contemporary (Major John 
Biddle) is printed in a series of articles in the Detroit 
Daily Advertiser, 1836, for June 14, 16, 18 and 23. 

122. The article is entitled "A View of Detroit." According to 

this, there were 300 buildings, of which 155 were dwell- 
ings. Nearly half were two stories high, and some 
three stories. A number were of brick and stone. See 
an interesting note on the Detroit of 1824 in "Inci- 
dents of Pioneer Life in Clinton County." Mich. Hist. 
Colls., I, 149. 

123. For example, the editor of the Michigan Herald (November 

22, 1825), undertakes to correct alleged misrepresenta- 
tions of Detroit made by the editor of the Cleveland 
Herald. The issue of the same paper for October 18, 
1825, compares conditions at Detroit with those at 
Buffalo, and Portland on Sandusky Bay. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 135 

buildings were erected in 1825, of which nearly one- 
half were two stories high.^"^ McKenney, whose brief 
epitome of Detroit for 1826 has the authority of a 
competent eye witness, says that "Jefferson Street" 
was pretty well built up in that year, also the first 
street from the river, and the three or four cross streets, 
but that houses were comparatively few and scattering 
back of Jefferson, ^-^ He mentions thirty stores. Mail 
came three times a week.^-^ The Territorial census 
of 1827 records 380 heads of families in the city, of 
whose names at least half appear to be other than 
French.^ "^ In that year a growing civic consciousness 
appears in the report of the committee of the common 
council to investigate and suggest improvements of 
the city, and their report probably furnishes a fair esti- 
mate of the most pressing needs at that time ; of some 
dozen suggestions the first four, considered apparently 
the most important, concerned the removal of disease- 
breeding refuse from the margin of the river, a sewer, 
a new fire engine, and pavement for the principal 

124. Lanman, History of Michigan, 231. A summary of condi- 

tions in the city in 1825 is given in a memorial of the 
citizens to the Territorial legislature; see the Michigan 
Herald, August 9, 1825. At the election of city officers 
April 4, 1825, 115 votes were cast, but the number of 
votes at succeeding elections makes it appear hardly 
representative of the voting population. Journal of the 
Proceedings of the Cmnmon Council (1824-1843), 18-19; 
'217 votes were cast the next year. Ibid., 28-29. The 
names are given in each; a large proportion are French. 

125. McKenney, Tour to the Lakes, 141. See also Mich. Hist. 

Colls., IV, 89-94. 

126. Gazette, February 7, 1826. 

127. Census of Michigan, 1884, I, xlviii. Mich. Hist. Colls. 

XII, next to page 461. See also for this period "Detroit 
in 1827 and Later on," in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 
272-283. 



136 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

streets.^^^ The stimulus to this action appears to have 
been a desire to utiHze the recent Federal grant of 
ten thousand acres of land from the adjacent military 
reservation, which is mentioned as making unnecessary 
a tax to carry out the proposed improvements. Still 
one gathers the impression of a rural, though thriving, 
waterside village. In the statement of occupations 
in the census of 1827, 451 people were engaged in agri- 
culture, 46 in manufacture and 5 in commerce. It is 
said that in 1829 a little way up Jefferson Avenue a 
common rail fence enclosed a fine clover field. Many 
of the houses on this principal street appear to have 
been still the little whitewashed tenements of the 
Canadian-French , palisaded as they originally were for 
defense against the Indians.^ -^ 

Detroit felt the full force of the rising wave of 
immigration in 1831. A contemporary says, "The 
demand for stores and dwelling houses is unprecedented. 
We have not been prepared to meet the exigencies 
arising from so rapid an increase of our numbers, 
and almost every building that can be made to answer 
for a shelter is occupied and filled. "^^° Buildings were 
in process of erection in various parts of the city. 
This prosperity was somewhat checked in 1832 by 

128. March 12, 1827. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common 

Council, (1824-43), 50-52. 

129. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 448. 

130. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, June 15, 1831. 

The same paper for July 13, 1831, copies from BicknelVs 
Philadelphia Register long extracts from a letter dated 
June 2 describing Detroit in that year. See the reminis- 
cent sketch by an eye witness of conditions in 1831 in 
Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 395-398; XXI, 496. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 137 

the Black Hawk War^^^ and an epidemic of cholera, 
but the check proved temporary.^''- An editorial in 
the Detroit Courier for August 7 of the following year 
congratulates the city on its freedom from cholera 
when so many places in the West were suffering. A 
much severer visitation afflicted the city in 1834 
when it is said to have lost a seventh of its popula- 
tion i^'*^'^ yet the new buildings erected that year were 
of such number and quality "as to give the city an 
air of elegance which could hardly have been antici- 
pated a year ago."^^** It is recorded that the new 
white buildings on avenues twenty-five yards wide 
gave the place the appearance of a "city of yester- 
day. "^^^ Detroit is said to have had in 1834, 477 
dwellings and 64 stores and warehouses some of which 
were four-story buildings."^ By the official census of 
1834 the population was then a little less than five 
thousand.^" Mail came from the East daily by 
steamboat and daily mails were received from various 

131. Magazine of Western History, V, Zi, 36; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

VI, 239; XVIII, 606. 

132. It is said that of the two hundred persons attacked, about 

one-half died. Landmarks, 380. For general conditions 
in that vear see "Detroit in the vear 1832," Mich. Hist. 
Colls., XXVIII, 163-171. 

133. Ibid., 382. It is said that for some time the city was 

quarantined and a rigid guard kept to prevent anyone 
from entering or leaving. Deaths became so frequent 
that the tolling of the church bells was discontinued in 
order that the living might get sleep. Landmarks , 381. 

134. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, October 1, 1834. 

135. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 111-113. 

136. MacCabe's Directory of Detroit (1837), 37, reporting the 

census of 1834. 

137. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, April 9, 1834. 



138 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

points in the interior. ^^^ A further awakening to 
consciousness of the needs of the growing city is shown 
in a report of the finance committee of the common 
council in which an effort is made to introduce some 
order into the corporation's financial affairs.^^^ 

Detroit shared fully in the extraordinarily rapid 
growth of the Territory in 1835-37.^40 ^arly in 1835 
the land ofhce was thronged with speculators and home 
seekers, and more land was bought at the Detroit 
office in that year than in any year of the Territorial 
period. ^"^^ The hotels and lodging places of the city 
were not sufficient to accommodate the press of immi- 
grants. In 1836 when lake navigation had yet scarce- 
ly opened, a city paper comments on the necessity of 
many immigrants' having to stay for a time on board 
the boats for lack of suitable quarters in the city.^"^^ 
It was estimated by contemporaries that for the seven 

138. Ibid., June 18, 1834, contains an official notice of the arrival 

and departure of mails. Mails were received daily from 
points on the Chicago Road, and weekly from Oakland, 
Macomb and St. Clair counties. A southern mail was 
received triweekly. 

139. Journal of the Proceedings of the Common Council (1824-43), 

258. This contains an abstract of the receipts and ex- 
penditures of the corporation between January 1, 1825 
and March 1834. 

140. For useful illustrative reminiscent sketches of Detroit in 

these years see Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 459-465; X, 97-101; 
XXXI, 490-509. Brief biographical sketches giving a 
fair view of the personal element in Detroit's growth at 
this time appear in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 585-638. 

141. The amount of land sold at the Detroit Land Office from the 

beginning of the cash system in 1820 to November 1836 
is given in MacCabe's Directory cf Detroit (1837). 
The climax of big sales came after 1820 periodically, in 
1825, 1830 and 1835. 

142. Detroit Daily Free Press, March 23, 1836. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 139 

months of open navigation, with an average of six 
boats arriving daily, some 200,000 people came and 
went through the port."^ The official census of 1837 
gives the city a permanent population of nearly ten 
thousand, with upwards of thirteen hundred dwellings 
and stores. ^^^ Woodward Avenue was beginning to 
rank among the first business streets. The city was 
more or less densely -settled for a distance of about 
three-quarters of a mile back from the river and for 
a mile along the river front. ^^^ 

The new immigration gave a strong stimulus to the 
business of the city. A Detroit paper says, "Our 
city has never evinced such decided proofs of pros- 
perity and rapid growth as it has shown the present 
summer and autumn;"^'*'"' and says another, "Such 
is the ordinary bustle of business that we forget how 
much we are really bound by the cold and ice of 
winter. "^^^ In the autumn of 1836 the amount of 
business seems to have been about double that of the 
same season the year before. ^"^^ Business conditions 
at the beginning of 1837 may be judged from nearly 

143. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit (1837), 36; Blois' Gazetteer, 

278. 

144. 9, 763. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit (1837), 37. He gives 

in a list of "streets, lanes and allies" (pp. 40-42) some 
eighty streets. Blois gives only eight principal streets. 

145. Blois, Gazetteer, 271. 

146. Detroit fournal and Courier, September 19, 1835. 

147. Detroit Daily Free Press, January 20, 1836. 

148. Detroit Daily Advertiser, September 6, 1836. The 27 new 

stores opened that spring all appeared to be doing a 
prosperous business; see business directory of the city 
in the same paper for June 11, 1836, apparently confined 
to the subscribers of the paper. 



140 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

four pages of advertisements in the Detroit Daily 
Advertiser for the second day of the new year. 

A complement to this was an increase in the price 
of city lots and the value of adjacent property. Lots 
at the lower end of Jefferson Avenue are said to have 
sold in the winter of 1835 at $150 a foot/"*^ while in 
the following summer five lots fronting on Jefferson 
Avenue sold at auction for between $285 and $292 per 
foot; a corner lot on Jefferson and Cass sold for $450 
a foot.^'^° The rising value of property in the out- 
skirts of the city is illustrated in the prices brought 
by the farms of Lewis Cass and Governor Porter. 
The Cass farm of about 500 acres bought nineteen 
years before for $12,000, and which when offered in 
1831 for $36,000 found no buyer, is said to have sold 
for $168,000 in 1835. ^^^ Two miles below the city 
on the Porter farm about seventy-five acres apparently 
brought nearly $20,000, though only $6,000 is said to 
have been paid two years before for the whole farm 
of 350 acres. ^^^ 

The business of the city was temporarily somewhat 
checked by the flow of money to the interior for 
investment, but many buyers were able to take the 
larger outlook for the future of the city. It was 
emphasized by the press. "The rage for buying land 
subtracts from the business of the city," admits the 
Detroit Daily Advertiser, '^^'^ "but accelerates the settle- 

149. Detroit Daily Free Press, December 25, 1835. 

150. Michigan Political vScience Association, Publications , IV, 

523. Detroit Free Press, June 17, 1836. 

151. Detroit Journal and Courier, July 15, 1835. 

152. Ibid. 

153. June 11, 1836. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 141 

ment of the country — for the buying mania drives 
on the tide of immigration. When the retarding causes 
we have referred to shall be removed, our city must of 
necessity expand all its business operations with a 
rapidity which we have not yet witnessed." By the 
close of the Territorial period, from one-half to two- 
thirds of Detroit's trade is said to have been with the 
interior. ^•''■^ Many merchants in the new settlement 
made all their purchases in the city. Ten extensive 
forwarding and commission houses are mentioned by 
Blois and MacCabe. Prices, especially of flour, appear 
to have risen steadily from 1835 to 1837, but a falling 
off ensued then owing partly to the abundant harvests 
on the newly settled farms of the interior. ^^^ As to the 
financial panic of 1837 and its disastrous effects upon 
Detroit, these have been described elsewhere in their 
relation to the Territory as a whole. ^^^ 

The relation of Detroit to the interior appears in 
the fact that all of the principal roads of the Territory 
led to it, from St. Joseph, Niles, Kalamazoo, from 
Grand Rapids and Saginaw, and from beyond Michigan 
in Illinois and Ohio. Stages were running on all these 
routes by 1837; daily for Sandusky, Chicago, Flint 
and Fort Gratiot, and triweekly for St. Joseph by 

154. Blois' Gazetteer, 211 . Cf. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit, 

35-36. The city was well situated for this trade, being 
the capital and chief port of the Territory for commerce 
with the eastern states. The fur-trade declined as the 
Territory became settled, and was comparatively unim- 
portant by the close of this period. Blois' Gazetteer, 21 S. 

155. Free Press, December 23, 1835, quotes flour at $6,25 per 

bbl. In Farmer's History of Detroit, I, 800, the price of 
flour is given for 1837 as $11 and $16; for 1838, $8; for 
1842, $2.25. 

156. See above, Chapter II. 



142 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the Territorial Road. But the roads were tortuous, 
muddy, and full of the stumps of newly fallen trees. 
Their condition in the vicinity of Detroit appears 
in the following newspaper comment on the price of 
wood, "What a strange fact that in a city surrounded 
by forests the price of wood should be five, six and 
seven dollars a cord."^" Greater facility of trans- 
portation was beginning to be sought in railroads. 
By the close of the period charters had been granted 
to many railroad companies and strap -railroads were 
approaching completion from Detroit to Ypsilanti 
and Pontiac;^^^ but the day of tolerably efficient serv- 
ice from railroads was at least a decade away. The 
press of immigration emphasized the need of better 
ferry service between Detroit and the Canada shore. ^^^ 
Many immigrants and their families were obliged to 
remain on the Canada side for days and at great 
expense before they could get passage across the 
river.^^° 

A natural accompaniment of the increase of trade 
was the new demand for labor, especially in activities 
related to building. The demand for mechanics in 

157. Daily Advertiser, December 24, 1836. 

158. MacCabe, Directory of Detroit (1837), 36; Blois, Gazetteer, 

278. 

159. A ferry-boat propelled by horse-power was introduced in 

1825, and a steam ferry in 1830, but they fell short of the 
need. 

160. Free Press, March 24, 1836. That paper says a new ferry 

was then building. The issue of March 28 hails the 
"glorious news for Detroit" that apparent progress is 
being made on the Canadian bill to incorporate a rail- 
road company to build from some Canadian point west 
to the Detroit River. The issue for April 2 gives the 
debates on the bill in the Canadian Legislature. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 143 

1835 was greater than could be met.^"^ A daily paper 
notices the recent organization of the House Carpenters 
and Joiners' Beneficiary Society "to promote a good 
understanding between the employers and employed, 
to prevent and adjust disputes, to promote mechanical 
knowledge and to provide for those members and 
their families who may be reduced to want by sickness, 
accident or other unavoidable calamity. "^"^^ 

The new impulse to settlement is reflected also in 
the growth of manufacture and commerce. Nine 
"extensive" factories are mentioned by Blois, the 
largest of which employed each about twenty men; 
he mentions also two breweries, of which one is credited 
with being the largest west of Albany. ^*^^ The increase 
of lake navigation and commerce in these closing years 
of the period impressed a contemporary as "un- 
paralled in the history of nations. "^"^^ The lake 
commerce, which in 1820 was accommodated by one 
side-wheeler, employed in 1836 thirty steamboats, 
some of them running to Milwaukee and Chicago; 
four hundred tons of freight are said to have been 
carried daily. ^'"''^ 

The material prosperity of Detroit was not without 
some influence on civic improvements. Following the 
immigrations of 1826 a loan of $50,000 was made by 

161. Free Press, December 23, 1835. 

162. Ibid., April 26, 1836. The society appears to have been 

incorpoiated in 1838. Session Laws (1838), 242. The 
Detroit Union Society of Carpenters and Joiners was 
incorporated in 1848. Session Laws (1848), 234. 

163. Blois, Gazetteer, 275. 

164. MacCahe, Directory of Detroit, 35. 

165. Ibid., 36. 



144 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the city cotmcil for that purpose. ^'^'^ Their attention 
was given first to a plan for the sewerage of the city;^" 
in this year the "Grand Sewer" was built. ^"^^ Next, at- 
tention was turned to the water supply. In the spring 
of the same year a wag appealing to the members of 
the temperance society proclaims that ' ' those whose 
principles forbid disguising water with brandy will 
be constrained to drink beer," unless something be 
done.^*^^ A contemporary writer attributes the 
epidemic of 1834 to pollution of the supply of drinking 
water through mismanagement by the hydraulic 
company ;^^° after some agitation the question of 
public ownership of the water supply was decided fa- 
vorably and the works of that company were purchased 
by the city for $25,500.^^^ A fire in 1837 which is 
said to have destroyed fifty-six buildings led to the 
improvement of the fire department.^ ^^ 

166. Detroit Jcurnal and Courier, November 17, 1835. 

167. Proceedings of the Common Council, March 9, 1836. 

168. Landmarks, 485. Before this the creek known as the 

Savoyard had been used as an open drain, and is said to 
have been usually so full of filth as to be a menace to 
health. The new sewer following the line of this creek 
was built underground at a cost of $22,607. Farmer, 
History of Detroit, I, 8-9, 60. 

169. Free Press, March 26, 1836. The Detroit Journal and 

Courier, July 22, 1835, reccrds that there is hardly a 
case of sickness, which is attributed to the cool weather 
and the effoits of the city to remove nuiEances Harriet 
Martineau saw at breakfast in Detroit on a Jtme morn- 
ing in 1836 "the healthiest set of faces that I had beheld 
since I left England." Society in America, I, 312. 

170. Free Press, April 28, 1836. 

171. Ibid., May 23, Blois mentions a new "hydraulic establish- 

ment" in process of construction, to cost $100,000. 
Gazetteer, 272. 

172. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 413. A city fire department was in- 

corporated in 1840. Session Laws (1840), 13, 



THE EASTERN SHORE 145 

The streets were poorly lighted and came in for much 
criticism by the press. The editor of the Detroit 
Journal and Courier ventured that a few more street 
lights such as the city had would produce total dark- 
ness,^" but little seems to have been done to improve 
them and the mud was as deep as ever; from a pioneer's 
diary it is learned that "the middle of the street is so 
constantly stirred up by the carts that it is a sea of 
mud so deep that the little French ponies often get 
set with almost an empty cart."^^"^ Mr. farmer says 
that one day in 1851 he counted fourteen teams 
stalled in the mud at one time. There were still few 
if any pavements or crosswalks; the growing- needs of 
street traffic secured some attention from the council 
to the question of pavement. ^'^° 

The presence of a new population is seen in the 
character of the city's buildings. The low, frail 

173. July 29, 1835. The character of the lamps used appears in 

an ordinance of April 29, 1835. Journal of the Proceed- 
ings of the Conimcr, Council (1824-43), 322. The City 
of Detroit Gas Company was incorporated in 1849. 
Session Laws (1849), 82. 

174. Mich. Hist. Cells., I, 191. For the universal use long made 

of the Canadian pony cart, see the Magazine of Western 
History, IV, 745-747, and Campbell's Outlines, 420-421. 
They are said to have gone out of general use when the 
streets began to be paved. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIII, 492. 
For street legislation by the Governor and Judges, .see 
Territorial Laws, I, 286, 289. See also Proceedings of the 
Board of Trustees of the City of Detroit, 11-12. 

175. Harriet Martineau, who was in Detroit in 1836, speaks of 

wooden planks laid on the grass to "form the pavement" 
in the outskirts of the city, and says that plans were 
being made to try the "block-wood" pavement, of which 
trial had been made in a part of Broadway, New York. 
Curiously enough, she makes no mention of Detroit's 
mud. Society in America, I, 313. 
19 



146 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

French-Canadian tenements with their unpainted fronts 
and moss covered roofs were quite lost among the 
larger dwellings and shops of the eastern settlers, 
"In the principal street, called the Jefferson avenue," 
writes the English author Mrs. Jameson about 1837, 
"there are rows of large and handsome brick houses; 
the others are generally wood, painted white, with 
bright green doors and windows. . . . There are 
some excellent shops in the town, a theatre, and a great 
number of taverns and gaming houses. "^'^^ The shift- 
ing and unsettled character of the new population is 
reflected in Blois' description of stores and dwellings 
built on leased land in such a way that they could be 
easily moved. It was a common sight, he says, to 
see one or more buildings removing from one part of 
the city to another.'" But the number of permanent 
buildings appears to have been fairly proportionate 
to the resident population. 

The American population of Detroit in 1837 was 
principally from New York and New England, as 
was also a large majority of the officials of both the 
city and Territory throughout the Territorial period."^ 
There were a few from Virginia, of whom Judge 
Woodward was a strong influence in the early settle- 
ment of both city and Territory. ^'^^ Of the states 
south of Michigan, Ohio furnished the larger number; 
many prominent citizens of eastern birth came to 
Michigan from Marietta, Ohio. 

176. Mrs. Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles, (Lond., 

1837), II, 82-83. 

177. Gazetteer, 273. 

178. Farmer, History of Detroit, II; Michigan Biographies, and 

Representative Men, passim. 

179. 1805-23. Landmarks, 273. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 147 

The Negro element in the population of the city 
was relatively small. In 1827 it comprised sixty-six 
free Negroes. ■^^'^ The 126 Negroes given in the census 
of 1830 were about half of the whole number in the 
Territory. ^^^ The census figures of 1834 give 138 
"colored persons," but these figures were apparently 
affected by the Negro riot in Detroit in 1833 over the 
attempt to enforce the fugitive slave law, which 
caused many of the persecuted race to flee to Canada. ^^^ 
There appear to have been no slaves owned by citizens 
at these dates, though the earlier census of 1810 shows 
seventeen in the Territory. ^^^ Since the Ordinance of 
1787 was opposed to slavery in the Territory, im- 
migration formed a strong antisalvery sentiment in 
Detroit, which as a molder of public opinion in Mich- 
igan became a strong force in preparing for the crisis 
of 1860. 

The proportion of foreign born citizens in the popula- 
tion was small; the Germans apparently composed 
the largest European element. Among the eight 
churches of the city Blois mentions a Protestant 
Church for Germans and a Catholic Church for English, 
Irish and Germans. ^^^ MacCabe mentions a German 



180. Census of Michigan, 1884, I, xlviii. The semi-official re- 

port of the committee of the Detroit Lyceum in 1819 
gives seventy "free people of color" for that year. 
Gazette, January 29, 1819. 

181. United States Census (1830), 153. 

182. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, September 10, 

1834. Blois mentions a church for "colored persons," 
Gazetteer, 274. 

183. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 345. See also Mich. Hist. 

Cells., I, 415-417. 

184. Gazetteer, 274. 



148 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Church built by subscriptions from citizens of Detroit 
of all denominations.^-'^ As early as 1853 the Germans 
appear to have been numerous enough to form a 
separate religious organization, said to have been 
ministered to by Pastor Schmidt of Ann Arbor, and it 
is probable that these earliest Detroit Germans came 
with the wave following the European revolutions of 
1830 which brought the first Germans to Washtenaw 
County. ^^'^ By 1835 their voting strength seems to 
have been sufficient to attract the attention of politi- 
cians ; at least a city newspaper announces its intention 
' ' to detail to the public the manoeuvres of the Central 
Committee to buy up our German fellow citizens."^" 
The French-Canadians appear to have been still a 
numerous class, and their language seems to have 
been spoken in Detroit to a considerable extent in 
1837. Yet they are said to have been fast amalgamat- 
ing with the predominant immigrant population. ^^^ 
In 1834 they apparently numbered less than one-sixth 
of the population of the city, "which was a much less 
proportion to the whole than we had anticipated," 
comments a city paper.^^^ Their voting strength 
was sufficient in 1823 to elect their candidate for 



185. Directoy of Deiioii, 1837. A wooden building 50 x 35 feet. 

186. vSee "Ovir German Immigrations," Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 

255. 

187. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, January 14, 1835. 

188. Gazetteer, 279. 

189. 'Deivoit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, Kpx'A 9, l^M. In 

a population of 4,973, the French numbered 801. Some 
accounts of the large French landowners about 1837 is 
given by a contemporary in "The Last of the Barons," 
Mich Hist. Colls., XXI, 499. Some forty-seven are 
mentioned. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 149 

delegate to Congress, Father Richard, against the 
combination of two eager and experienced poHtic- 
ians."° 

Though in general the culture of the city had to 
wait upon the task of subduing nature, it was not 
lacking in some circles at least even at an early day. 
Detroit gained socially from being the capital city of 
the Territory; the leaders of its society were born and 
educated in cultured sections of the eastern states. 
On his visit to Detroit in 1826 McKenney wrote, 
"The company at Major Biddle's last night was 
sufficient to satisfy me that althotigh I have reached 
the confines of our population in this direction, I am 
yet in the circle of hospitable and polished life."^^^ 
Hoffman in 1833 found the city "remarkable for 
agreeableness and elegant hospitality. "^^^ The society 
of Detroit appealed to Harriet Martineau on her visit 
in 1836 as "very choice," and she venttires to say that 
it had been so since the old colonial days. She found 
every reason to think that "under its new dignities 
Detroit will become a more and more desirable place 
to live." "Some of its inferior society," she says, "is 

190. Landmarks, 361-362. See comment on the election by a 

writer in the Gazette for October 17, 1823, to the effect 
that the election was no evidence of "religious toleration 
in Michigan," since Father Richard was supported only 
by his own sect. The Patriot War of 1837 is said to 
have caused the immigration of Canadians to Detroit, 
but apparently not in large nimibers. For this event in 
relation to Detroit, see Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 573-579. 
It does nor appear that distinctively French or English 
ideas made any permanent impression upon the funda- 
mental laws of either city or Territory. 

191. Tour to the Lakes, 113. 

192. A Winter in the West, I, 120. 



150 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

still very youthful/®^ — but the most enlightened soci- 
ety is, I believe, equal to any which is to be found 
in the United States.''^^^ 

This culture was reflected institutionally in many 
ways, as seen for example in the works of Blois and 
MacCabe, where much space is given to the theatre, 
museum, public garden, newspapers, schools, churches, 
orphan asylums, and to societies of a literary, historical, 
scientific and moral character. ^^^ Blois mentions a 
public library containing 4,100 volumes. ^^'^ Of "chief 
interest to those who regard the diffusion of useful 
knowledge as important to the preservation of good 
morals and of liberty," is a newspaper-mention of the 
lyceum and a course of lectures given by Mr. Hough- 
ton.^" The lyceum, founded in 1818, was the forum 
of Detroit where the leading men of the city as well as 
amateurs discussed and debated topics of national 
interest not alone for the sharpening of wits but for 
the edification of the people. The programs and 

193. Traits of this youtlifulness appear in a contemporary's 

description of scenes on an election day of about that 
time. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190-191. 

194. Society in America, I, 314-315. 

195. Gazetteer, 274-276; MacCabe, Directory of Detroit, 30-32. 

An act for the encouragement of literature and the im- 
provement of the city of Detroit was one of the first acts 
of the Governor and Judges, September 9, 1805. Terri- 
torial Laws, I, 61 . The sum of $20,000 for the purpose 
was to be raised by four successive lotteries. 

196. Gazetteer, 211 . See lists of books for sale by Sheldon and 

Reed (publishers of the Gazette), at the Gazette office at 
various times, the first appearing July 25 and September 
26, 1817. The Library of the City of Detroit was 
incorporated in 1817. Territorial Laws, I, 310. Its 
meetings are frequently mentioned in the Gazette. 

197. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, December 29, 

1830. 




H)'^* 



6-3^^ - ' -V «r' 




'^'^^"'•.^" -^^^'"^ ■ ;#W»::?»«5B3*-'-~-^- 



OLD CAPITOL AT DETROIT 

(Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, frontispiece) 

This huililinK, 00x00 feet, was built in 1823-28 at a cost of .$24, 500. It was first 
used ijy tlie Lfsislative Council of the Territory May ">, 1828. anil last used by 
the .State Legislature in the session whicli closed March 17, 1847. After 1848 i'l 
was used by the Detroit Hoard of Education for .school purposes. Its classical 
design reflects a cliaracteristic influence of tliH period. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 151 

reports of these weekly occasions show a sense for the 
niceties of national questions that would surprise one 
who should expect to find the "back-woods" giving 
the predominant tone to the intellectual life of the 
city.^^'"* Often the newspapers^ ^'' of the city contained 
verbatim copies of important congressional speeches 
and presidential papers. Some historical interest was 
shown by the formation (1829) of a historical society 
the character of whose work is indicated by the volume 
of Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan pub- 
lished in 1834 at Detroit. ^°° Governor Cass was long 
the president and chief promoter of this society. ^°^ 
The schools, though on the whole they reflected the 
traditions of the eastern states, had obvious frontier 

198. See, for instance, an early account of debates and a forecast 

of speakers for a month in the Gazette of February 27, 
1818. The constitution of the lyceum is given serially 
in the Gazette for May 8, May 22, June 5, and July 31, 
1818. A literary association known as The Young 
Men's Society, fonned in 1833, supplemented the 
lyceum. See Detroit Young Men's Society, Reports 
(Detroit, 1876). The Detroit Courier for February 20, 
1833, contains the introductory address of the president 
(F. Sawyer, Jr.) stating purposes and plans, also the 
by-laws and standing rules which help to explain its 
scope and character. The same paper (November 20, 
1833) laments the "inactivity" and "deplorable condi- 
tion" of the society. Apparently it took on new life in 
1836, when it was incorporated. Session Laws (1835- 
36), 165. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 361-375. 

199. Blois mentions three dailies, four weeklies, one religious 

weekly, and one monthly devoted to education. Gazet- 
teer, 274. 

200. The preface of the volume gives an account of the intended 

work of the society. The contributions are addresses de- 
livered at its meetings. 

201. MacCabe's Directory of Detroit (1837), on p. 32, says, "We 

are not apprized of much activity among its members at 
present." This w^as after Cass' removal to Washington. 



152 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

limitations. The classical tradition was strong, but its 
expression was somewhat amusing, as represented by 
Judge Woodward, who is said to have been chiefly 
responsible for the system laid down and enacted into 
law in 1821 for the "Catholepistemiad."-°2 Yet this 
institution was at least a glance in the direction of 
the future University of Michigan; it was significant 
for the future that its first professors were a Scotch 
minister and a Catholic priest. -°^ The classical tradi- 
tion is reflected also in the English Classical School 
which was started in 1832. In 1834 an interest in 
female education resulted in the founding of the 
Ladies' Seminary. Common-school education in 
Detroit was distinctly frontier in character until the 
period of statehood. The Catholic schools have been 
mentioned above; the Protestant schools were quite 
as meager, and not free as were the Catholic schools. ^°^ 
Agitation for free schools is reflected in the city papers 
beginning about 1833, which is the date of a number 
of revivals due apparently to the stimulus of immigra- 
tion. ^°^ But it was not until Michigan adopted her 

202. Territorial Laws, I, 879-882. The initial project was 

launched in 1817. 

203. John Monteith and Father Richard. The Gazette for Jan- 

uary 29, 1818, contains the advertisement of a Classical 
Academy to be opened on February 2 next, signed by 
"John Monteith, President of the University." 

204. See an article by a former superintendent of public instruc- 

tion on "Traditions and Reminiscences of the Public 
Schools of Detroit," in Mich. Hiit. Colls., I, 450. _ The 
Gazette, April 30, 1819, gives a report on the condition of 
education in the "primary school" at Detroit. There 
were 170 children in school in the city in 1818, according 
to the Gazette of January 29, 1819. 

205. In 1834, out of 1,496 children between 5 and 20 years of 

age, 801 were in school. An editorial in the Detroit 



THE EASTERN SHORE 153 

first constitution that the sure foundation was laid 
for the practical application of the famous declaration 
in the Ordinance of 1787, that "Religion, morality 
and knowledge being necessary to good government 
and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
of education shall forever be encouraged. "^°° 

Scarcely second to Detroit as a center of French - 
Canadian influence and American settlement was 
Monroe, situated about three miles and a half up 
the Raisin on the south bank of the river across 
from the old village of Frenchtown. The latter had 
been a depot of the old Northwest Fur Company, and 
had never contained more than a few dwellings and 
stores, which were ruined in 1813. The site was 
favored for a village, by the Americans but it was 
difficult to get the French, who held the title, to grant 
enough land for the public purposes of a county 
seat.^°^ When the county of Monroe was established 
in 1817, the seat of its public business was located, there- 
fore, in a new village, across the river, promoted by 
Americans, and named like the county for the new 
president of the United States. ^°^ 

The location of a county seat usually so influenced 

205. Co7i. Courier, April 9, attributes this to the lack of free schools, 

and urges a change. See also an editorial in the same 
paper for Avigust 19, 1835. Detroit was early excepted 
from the operation of the general school laws. Terri- 
torial Laws, II, 776; see also Territorial Laws, III, 1238. 

206. The religious life of Detroit in the Territorial period is 

sketched in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 417-429; III, 225-243; 
XIII, 424-483. 

207. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 362, 374. 

208. An account of President Monroe's visit to Detroit that year 

is given in the Gazette for August 16 and 22, 1817. 



154 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the popular mind as to give a special impulse to the 
settlement of a village thus favored. Despite this 
advantage, however, Monroe grew very slowly for a 
decade. Its slowness of growth was in common with 
that of the rest of the county, as well as that of the 
section as a whole. ^"^^ It seems to have felt its first 
strong impulse about the time of the opening of the 
Erie Canal. The Michigan Herald of April 26, 1826, 
reports that its population increased more than 
one-third in the past year.^^° Another step forward 
was taken in 1827, in keeping with the general new life 
around it, when the village polled sixty-two votes on 
the issue of incorporating, measuring its progressive- 
ness by a favorable vote of forty-three to nineteen. "^^ 
The population had grown in 1830 to 478; for the year 
1834 estimates vary from 1,200 to 1,600, which was 
about one-seventh of the population of the county. 
Hoffman says that in 1833 the village had about one 
hundred and fifty houses, of which twenty or thirty 

209. The presence of Americans at Monroe is signalized by the 

advertisement in the Gazette for July 25, 1817, of a 
"new wholesale and retail store" opened by H. Pierce 
and Company. The extent of their anticipated trade is 
seen in a fairly good assortment of dry goods, groceries 
and hardware. Special inducements are offered to 
traders; furs will be received in payment. The Gazette 
for July 3, 1818, has a favorable editorial on the "new 
village of Monroe." According to a letter from Monroe 
dated February 7, 1819, quoted in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXVIII, 484, many "EngHsh people" (Americans?) 
are moving in daily. 

210. See also the Gazette for December 13, 1825. The opening of 

the land office in 1824 made the village a center of atten- 
tion. 

211. Wing, History of Monroe County, 138, 141; Hoffman, A 

Winter in the West. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 155 

were of stone. He mentions two gristmills, a woolen 
factory, an iron foundry, several sawmills, a chair 
factory and a tannery. These were undoubtedly all 
on a very small scale, but they reflect the environ- 
ment and resources of the village and indicate the 
trend of activities. The village, says Hoffman, was 
"the fussiest little town in the world;" to him it 
looked "as if the buildings had all been tossed from 
the other side of the river and left to settle just where 
they might fall upon this." Touching the progress 
of the village he adds, "if the place continues to in- 
crease as rapidly, however, as it has during the last 
year — the population having doubled in that time — 
the inhabitants can afford to burn down the river 
side of the village, and arrange it to more advantage." ^^^ 
The awakening of the village in 1826-27 is reflected in 
the preparations for making the mouth of the Raisin 
suitable for a harbor, for which the National Govern- 
ment had made an appropriation.-^^ In 1834 a steam- 
boat built there is said to have been ready to begin its 
trips to Buffalo. 214 
j In contemporary opinion Monroe seemed to have 
j the promise of becoming a great city. Men of prom- 
inence who were apparently competent judges made 
I it their home, and in 1835-36 a group of men known 
j as the Cass Company — named for Lewis Cass who 
I was the leading spirit — are said to have speculated 
; heavily in neighboring lands. -^^ Rivalry with Toledo 

j 212. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 127-128. 

I 213. Statutes at Large, IV, 229; Hoffman, A Winter in the West, 

I, 45, 169. 
' 214. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, September 24, 
I 1834; Wing, History of Monroe County, 139. 

; 215. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 369. 



156 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

stimulated the city to make large appropriations to 
supplement those of the National Government for a 
ship-way direct to the waters of Lake Erie.^^^ Its 
prospects were considered superior to those of Chicago, 
whose population and business it fully eqiialled at 
that time, and whose position near Lake Erie was 
nearer to the East by the whole length of the Lakes. 
It was a natural port for southeastern Michigan. 
The daily stages between Detroit and Buffalo carried 
its passengers and mail, and railroads were chartered 
to connect it with the interior. The amount of grain 
from the interior seems to have been sufficient to 
support two flouring mills there in 1838. Apparently 
the first shipment of flour from Michigan was the two 
hundred barrels made in Monroe and sent to New 
York in 1827. Its abundant water power and neighbor- 
ing timber afforded great facilities for manufacture. ! 
According to Blois it had in 1838 three sawmills and 
numerous factories. Besides timber there was a 
great quantity of limestone for building material. ^^^ 
Among its cultural institutions Blois mentions a 
branch of the University, two female seminaries and 
six churches. By the census of 1837 the village and 
township had a population of something under three 
thousand people, of whom about one-half appear to | 
have been French-Canadians.-^^ 



216. Mick. Hist. Colls., VI, 369, 382; Wing, History of Monroe 

County, 170-176. 

217. Blois mentions a courthouse of hewn stone which cost 

upward of $35,000. Gazetteer, 327. 

218. Ihid.,^ 328; Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 371-372. The latter 

writer says that not one-fourth of the Canadians could 
speak English, and that not more than one in twenty 
could write it correctly. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 157 

There were several shore settlements between Monroe 
and Detroit which in 1837 gave promise of becoming 
centers of population: Brest, Gibraltar, Flat Rock, 
Brownstown and Wyandotte. In the view of its 
founders Brest was to become "the great commercial 
center of the West," but its population in 1860 was 
less than lOO.'^^^ Even more pretentious in 1837 were 
the activities of the company at Gibraltar, which had 
the typical outfit of the ' ' paper town ' ' and was similar 
in nature and fate to Port Sheldon opposite to it across 
the Territory on the shore of Lake Michigan.^-" In 
1837 a canal is said to have been half completed be- 
tween Gibraltar and Flat Rock, a village about a 
half dozen miles up the Huron River where there had 
gathered an estimated population of about 250 
people.--^ Brownstown and Wyandotte were old 
Indian villages, and the inhabitants in 1837 were 
chiefly Indians. ^^^ 

Beyond Detroit in Macomb County on the lower 
Clinton lay Mt. Clemens, which up to 1818 had been 
a trading post and mission station rather than a true 
settlement. -^^ American settlers began to come to 
Mt. Clemens at about the same time as to Monroe. 
Like Monroe it was located at some distance from the 



219. Blois, Gazetteer, 258; Clark, Gazetteer (1863), 205. It was 

about six miles north of Monroe, owned by a company 
which in 1837 was busy constructing piers for the 
harbor. 

220. Blois, Gazetteer, 290. It was on the Wayne shore about 

twenty miles south of Detroit. 

221. Ibid., 286.- See also the Detroit Courier for March 6, 1833. 

222. Mich. Hist Colls., XVIII, 518; XIII, 310; Detroit Courier, 

March 6, 1833; Bureau of . American Ethnology, Eight- 
eenth Annual Report^ Part 2, p. 690. 
t 223. History of Macomb County, 181-186. 



158 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

mouth of a considerable river, ^^^ had an important 
nucleus of settlement in its vicinity^^^ and had similar 
relations with Detroit as a market and supply station. 
Like Monroe also it received its first impulse with 
the opening of the public land sales and became a 
county seat; but unlike Monroe, it was not in the 
direct line of immigration from the East, and this was 
an important differential in its early growth. 

The village was platted in 1818, when it numbered 
about fifteen families."'^ in the same year a post- 
office was authorized.-" An advertisement of that 
year in the Gazette represented the village as eligibly 
situated about four miles from the shore in an excellent 
farming district, and the river as navigable to the 
village for "large boats," springs of excellent water 
as abundant, and the village as the county seat.^^^ 
Its most public spirited citizen, and perhaps the 
strongest single personal influence in the early settle- 
ment of the county, was Christian Clemens, who 
came originally from Pennsylvania. He became the 
founder and namesake of the village, and it was through 
his public gifts that the county seat was secured.--^ 
About 1822-23 came the first signs of a real awakening 

with the arrival of the first merchant, physician and 
mill. 230 



224. Ibid., 889, describes the mouth of the river as flat and 

marshy. 

225. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 158. 

226. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 358. 

227. History of Macomb County (1882), 523. 

228. Gazette, September 25, 1818. The sand bar and the marshy 

district near the mouth of the river were not mentioned. 

229. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 490; History of Macomb County 

(1882), 524. 

230. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 312; V, 462. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 159 

The date of the second Gazette advertisement of the 
advantages of Mt. Clemens appears to reflect the 
impulse given to the settlement of the Territory by 
the opening of the Erie Canal. Emphasis is laid 
upon the situation of the village as high and healthful. 
Its one physician, who was planting potatoes when the 
writer called, is quoted as saying that the place was 
so universally healthful that he had quite too much 
leisure. At about that time an impulse to building 
seems to be indicated by the starting of a brickyard, 
and the beginnings of shipbuilding appear in a 120- 
ton schooner then under construction. In 1834, the 
same year in which the first large boat appears to have 
been launched at Monroe, another paper announces 
the readiness of "two large ships "at Mt. Clemens. ^^^ 
By the close of the period the abundant sand for glass 
was being used; in the Free Press of January 7, 1836, 
there is mentioned a glass factory just put in operation 
which employed sixty hands from eastern factories. ^^^ 

The growth of Mt. Clemens in this period was ap- 
parently somewhat slower than that of Monroe. Its 
population in 1836 is said to have been between 800 
and 1,000.^^^ It was incorporated a decade later 
than the more southerly village. -'^^ This slowness 
seems to have been due partly to the speculation in 
village lots and in neighboring lands. The village 

231. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, April 9, 1834. 

They were of 130 and 150 tons respectively, and smaller 
ones appear to have been built about the same time. 

232. This was for the manufacture principally of window glass. 

See also the same paper for January 1 1 . 

233. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 53. 

234. Ihid., VI, 359. 



160 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

wavS vSurrounded by a "cordon of paper cities""'''^ and 
the high prices of suitable locations drove intending 
settlers to choose the cheaper Government land else- 
where. Again, the influence of Detroit overshadowed 
the village, which had to share also with Pontiac, 
Rochester, Utica, Romeo and other places, the interest 
that was being directed northward from Detroit. 
Monroe was in the direct line of immigration, at least 
after 1826, and had no near competing rivals excepting 
Detroit. ^'^'"' The road^" and harbor improvements at 
Mt. Clemens compare unfavorably with those at 
Monroe, although much money was expended later to 
connect the village with the interior by canal. ^^^ In 
1833 eight stores were sufficient to meet the needs of 
its trade. ^^^ 

The oldest center of population in the region of the 
St. Clair River is St. Clair, which has a British 
military tradition that dates from 1765. A small 

235. Ihid., V, 53; History of Macomb County (1882), 432. 

236. The areas of the townships containing the two village cen- 

ters were about equal in 1834, but Harrison Township 
received this area only that year, while the boundaries 
of Monroe Township date from 1827. Territorial Laws, 
II, 477; III, 1275; History of Macomb County, 142. 

237. Mt. Clemens was at the junction of the Clinton River and 

the Fort Gratiot Road, but the ice appears to have been 
more frequently used in the winter. History of Macomb 
County (1882), 262-263. 

238. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 469 quotes from the Detroit Journal 

and Courier for July 20, 1838, an account of the celebra- 
tion at "the Queen village," of the Clinton and Kalama- 
zoo Canal. One speaker, in a burst of optimism, lauds 
the day "which will be recollected by the people of 
Michigan as the proudest that ever happened, or can 
again transpire while her soil remains a component part 
of terra firma." 

239. Blois, Gazetteer, 329. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 161 

colony of French-Canadians^*° which had survived 
the War of 1812 made their home there, and on one 
of the French farms parties from Detroit laid out in 
1818 at the junction of the Pine and St. Clair rivers 
the "Town of St. Clair," which was to become the 
county seat of St. Clair County. '^"^^ Its growth was 
very slow. Blois mentions but three stores there in 
1838.^^- Its chief indvistry was lumbering; five saw 
mills were operating in its vicinity in that year and it 
had one steam fiourmill. Blois mentions also a good 
harbor. -^^ 

Elsewhere along the St. Clair, principally at junc- 
tions with its branches, sufficient beginnings were made 
in this period to indicate centers of later growth. At 
these points swift currents ran between high banks 
and the supporting industry was lumbering. The 
future Marine City and Port Huron were then in 
embryo. The former, at the mouth of the Belle River, 
was laid out into village lots in 1831.^^^ In the period 
of greatest speculation, 1835-36, its site appears to 
have been bought by Ohio speculators and replatted 
as "New Port."^"*^ Except for the county buildings 

240. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 172; History of St. Clair County 

(1883), 254. 

241. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 356. See advertisements of lots for 

sale, signed by C. McDougall, in the Gazette for August 
7, 1818. Emphasis is laid on the harbor, which "will 
admit the largest vessels at all seasons." The place was 
long known as Palmer. 
242 Gazetteer, 237, under 'Talmer." 

243. For the village of St. Clair see Jenks, History of St. Clair 

County, I, 137, 157, 251, 257, 281, 369. 

244. History of St. Clair County (1883). There appears to have 

been some shipbuilding there as early as 1825. 

245. Mich. Hist, Colls., VI, 413; XXI, 339. 

21 



162 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

it quite equalled in appearance the enterprise of St. 
Clair.-^"^ Port Huron, laid out in 1835-^^ at the junc- 
tion of the Black River with the St. Clair, became the 
center of the lumbering industry in the St. Clair 
region. A "thriving village," says Blois, "and being 
the central point for the lumber business, it is con- 
sidered the most flourishing of any in the county. "^'^^ 
Measured by its twelve stores it had three or four 
times the trade of St. Clair and Marine City. Its 
exports for 1837 amounted to about $150,000,-^^ and 
its importance in contemporary opinion is shown by 
its selection in 1837 as the eastern terminal for the 
Northern Railroad. -^° A fourth village was platted 
on the St. Clair in 1836 at Algonac, which Blois men- 
tions as small but doing considerable business. "^^ 

To Harriet Martineau in 1836, "there seemed to 
be no intermission of settlers' houses all at regular 

246. Blois, Gazetteer, 332, credits it with four stores in 1838, and 

it appears to have had also a sawmill and a gristmill. 
There had been some shipbuilding as early as 1825, 
when the place was known as Ward's Landing. Mich. 
Hist. Colls., VI, 413. See for general discussion, Jenks, 
History of St. Clair County, I, 144, 259. 

247. Lumbering in the Port Huron region seems to have started 

on the Black River about 1827. The village was started 
first at the mill six miles from the St. Clair, but mis- 
calculation of waterpower brought it down to the junc- 
tion. In 1833 there are said to have been some eighteen 
buildings there. History of St. Clair County (1883), 496. 

248. Blois, Gazetteer, 346. 

249. Ibid., 240. 

250. See Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, 13-14, for 

reasons favoring the mouth of the Black River as the 
terminal. For Port Huron see Jenks, History of St. 
Clair County, I, 143, 153, 253, 366, 368. 

251. History of St. Clair County (1883), 256; Gazetteer, 317. See 

also Jenks, History of St. Clair County, I, 264. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 163 

distances along the bank," and about the same time 
Mrs. Jameson was impressed with the contrast be- 
tween the settlement of the American and British 
shores of the St. Clair River. "As usual," she says, 
"the British coast is here the most beautiful and 
fertile, and the American coast the best settled and 
cleared. Along the former I see a few isolated log 
shanties, and groups of Indian lodges; along the latter 
several extensive clearings, and some hamlets and 
rising villages; "^^- she thought this might be due to 
the better accommodations for transportation on the 
American shore. 

Aside from these four river centers of settlement 
and a narrow strip of open land along the banks 
threaded by the Fort Gratiot Road from one settlement 
to another, there was scarcely a settler in the re- 
gion at the end of this period. St. Clair County had 
then less population than any other county in the 
section. Significant were the positions and areas of 
the four townships of the county in 1834, which 
changed but slightly from 1827 to that date.^^^ Their 
long axes, extending parallel from the St. Clair River 
to the western boundaries of the county, suggest that 
in relation to the settlers there was little choice of 
stopping places between the river and that boundary. 
The gradually increasing width of the townships from 
south to north suggests the gradual thinning out of 
population northward, and there is some significance 

252. Winter Studies and Summer Rambles, II, 107. Lanman 

gives a picturesque description of settlement along the 
St. Clair River in his History of Michigan, 266. 

253. Territorial Laws, II, 478. 



164 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

in the correspondence between their positions and the 
courses of the Belle, Pine and Black rivers. -^^ 

The relatively slow settlement of the St. Clair 
region was due partly to misrepresentations, partly 
to its dense forests, but mainly to its distance from the 
direct route of immigration which led settlers to the 
more open country in southwestern Michigan. In 
1836 the relative importance of the settlements along 
the St. Clair with those in the interior is shown by the 
inclusion of the whole of the northern part of the 
county in the large township of Clyde and the forma- 
tion of the two narrow river townships of Sinclair 
and Desmond. ^^^ But there was some inland settle- 
ment by 1837. The census for that year shows some 
six hundred settlers in the area formerly covered by the 
township of Clyde as compared with over thirteen 
hundred in the two river townships immediately east 
of it. 256 

"The query may be suggested, Why has not this 
country been settled sooner?" says "Philo Veritas, "^^ 
and adds, "I will briefly answer; a detail of satisfactory 
reasons might be assigned, but the principal one is, 
that those who have given the chief direction to 
emigration have not deemed it consistent with their 
local interests to settle the county of St. Clair, and 
the reasons may be readily discovered by reflecting 
on the relative situation St. Clair and Wayne county 

254. Blois says the settlements in 1838 were mainly in the south- 

em half of the county and on the St. Clair River. Gazet- 
teer, 241. 

255. Session Laws (1836), 80. 

256. Michigan Legislative Manual {1S38), 13. 

257. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, May 4, 1831. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 165 

hold to one another, and the other parts of the 
peninsula; consequently St. Clair has been represented 
a swamp, a sink of pestilential vapors breeding disease 
and death." 

But apparently the St. Clair region felt with the rest 
of the Territory the common impulse to settlement 
that came with the first land sales, the opening of the 
Erie Canal, and the era of speculation in the early 
thirties. The platting of the "Town of St. Clair" 
in 1818 has been noted. The first report in the Gazette 
of an exploration into the interior back from the St. 
Clair River, in 1822, was very favorable to settle- 
ment, ^^^ and just after the opening of the Erie Canal 
there appeared a second favorable description. ^^^ 
Others followed in 1831-32. These were written 
obviously by persons desiring to promote the settle- 
ment of the county, yet they did not overdraw its 
advantages. ^^° The advantages for shipbuilding and 
pine lumbering were specially dwelt upon. The growth 
of lake commerce and the approaching completion of 
the Erie Canal stimulated interest in these industries. 
As above noted, boats were being built at the sites of 
Marine City and St. Clair in the early twenties, as 
also at the upper end of the St. Clair near Lake Huron. 
"Boats, calculated to pass through the lakes St. Clair 
and Erie, and the New York Canal are now building 

258. Gazette, September 6, 1822. It reports a rich soH, an un- 
dulating surface, pure streams of water, mill sites rich in 
timber, and less waste land than elsewhere. 

259 Ihid., July 18 and August 1. 

260. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, May 4, 1831. 



166 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

near the foot of Lake Huron," says the Gazette^^^ in 
1824, ''for the purpose of taking cargoes of produce 
to the city of New York." According to "Philo 
Veritas" above quoted, St. Clair County furnished 
by 1831 almost all the pine lumber (spars, boards, 
shingles, etc.) used in the eastern part of Michigan 
and in the northern part of Ohio.-*^- Settlement was 
somewhat aided by the Government's interest in 
Fort Gratiot^'^'^ at the upper end of the St. Clair River, 
which drew the military road northward from Detroit 
through the sites available for settlement along the 
river; but it was long before this route was much more 
than a rude wagon road.-*^'^ From 1834 to 1837 the 
population of the county grew from about two 
thousand to six thousand. -"^^ 

The central physiographic influences which affected 
settlement in the interior immediately south of the 
St. Clair cotmtry were the Clinton River, the presence 
of the village of Mt. Clemens as a supporting basis 
from which settlement might radiate, and the openings, 

261. Gazette, July 16, 1824. For early shipbuilding in St. Clair 

County see Jenks, History of St. Clair County, 1, 403, 
et seq. 

262. Detroit Jotirnal and Michigan Advertiser, May 4, 1831. 

Nine sawmills were reported running on Black and 
Belle rivers.' 

263. See description of the advantages of Fort Gratiot for a 

military post in the Gazette for August 29, 1826. Fort 
Gratiot was established near the close of the War of 
1812 on the site of an early French fort. (St. Joseph, 
abandoned 1688). See also Jenks, History of St. Clair 
County, I, 95 and 262, et seq. 

264. See Jenks, History of St. Clair County, I, 384, et seq. 

265. Blois, Gazetteer, 151 ; Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 

The effect of the panic of 1837 is seen in a decrease of 
population to 4,606 in 1840. U. S. Census (1840), 447. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 167 

plains and prairies in the western portion of Macomb 
County. The strong current of the CHnton furnished 
adequate power for mills, and the openness of the 
country in the upper course of the river gave good 
promise of quick returns in farm, stock and dairy 
produce. Settlers found their chief market, shipping 
point and source of supplies in Mt. Clemens, but in 
the western part of the county, in the days before 
mills, settlers at Romeo and Utica usually went for 
grist to Rochester and Pontiac. Timber abounded in 
all parts of the county. In the northeastern portion, 
a region destined to be the supply center for the future 
shipbuilding of Mt. Clemens, the comparative density 
of timber made settlement slow. 

Land-buying took place in the interior of Macomb 
county about as early and energetically as in either 
Wayne or Monroe counties. By 1821 land had been 
bought in all of the w^estern townships excepting 
Warren, -"^^ where no purchases were made until 1830. 
Buyers specially favored the southern part of Wash- 
ington Township. About 1830 sales became rapid in 
the extreme northwest and apparently many of the 
purchasers became actual settlers. Twenty -four pur- 
chases were made that year in the present Bruce 
Township, but no purchases were made in the northeast 
"of the county until after 1830. The lands of this 
county seem to have suffered from the same mis- 
representations that were noted above of St. Clair 

266. History of Macomb County (1882) , 470-47 1 ; Mich. Hist. Colls. , 
XXVI, 548; XXVIII, 423. The Gazette observes, No- 
vember 1, 1825, that though Macomb County is not 
settHng as fast as Oakland and Washtenaw, "it will have 
its turn." 



168 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

County. According to a writer in a Detroit paper, 
because of "local jealousies and a narrow-minded 
policy pursued by interested speculators and their 
numerous agents" Macomb County had been more 
grossly misrepresented than any other section of the 
Territory. 267 

The date 1830 marks about the beginning of active 
settlement in the interior of Macomb County. In 
agreement with this date is the evidence of township 
organization as to the massing of population at this 
time in the western part of the county. ^"^^ Apparently 
this is the meaning of the longer north and south axes 
of the townships there, which comports with the fact 
that the largest township in the county remained in 
the center undivided until 1834.^^^ The comparative 
openness of the west is probably reflected in the fact 
that the northwestern townships received in 1833 the 
areas they have today, ^'^^ while the northeastern town- 
ships remained relatively large. ^^^ The relative back- 
wardness of settlement in the central and southern 
parts of the county are shown by the censuses of 1830 
and 1837. At each date the bulk of the population 
appears in the west, away from the shore, although by 
1837 the figures show the influence of the Clinton River 
in massing population along its course. In 1837 the 

267. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, June 8, 1831. In 

the Gazette for October 11, 1822, appears a vigorous denial 
that sickness was prevalent in Macomb County. 

268. Territorial Laws, II, 478. 

269. Ihid., Ill, 1275. 

270. Ibid., Ill, 985. See the Detroit Journal and Michigan Ad- 

vertiser, June 8, 1832, for a description of settlement in 
the county in that year. 

271. Ibid., Ill, 1124, 1275. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 169 

western range of townships stood to the eastern in 
population as 3 to 1."- From 1830 to 1834 the popu- 
lation of the county increased from about 2,500"^ to 
abotit 6,000,-'^ and in the following three years the 
total ran nearly to 9,000."^ This is evidence of fairly 
steady growth."*^ 

Centers of population were developed in Macomb 
County at Romeo and Utica. It is probable that 
some slight beginnings of the trading post nature were 
made at these sites as early as 1817. Romeo had a 
good situation for the trader, being a point where 
numerous trails crossed and where the Indians had a 
village; "^ the village of Romeo is typical of that class 
of settlements in which the Indian village and the 
French trader marked out a site of promise. Its im- 
mediate antecedent was the "Hoxey settlement," a 
name acquired from one of Governor Cass' employees, 
a Canadian lumberman who settled there with his 
family about 1822. This settlement was brought to 
pubhc attention before 1830 both by the Detroit press 
and by notice on Risdon's map of 1825.^'^ The Gazette 
noticed the environment favorably in 1824 and again 

272. In 1850_the proportion was 2 to 1, and in 1860 as 1| to 1, 

showing the gradual filHng in at the east. 

273. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 

274. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

275. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. 

276. One new township was organized in 1835. Territorial Laws, 

III, 1368; and three in 1837 in the south and northeast, 
Session Laws (1837), 41, 140. 

277. The first name of the postoffice at Romeo was "Indian 

Village." Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, Jan- 
uary 5, 1831. 

278. The Risdon map shows Tremble's sawmill just above a 

small branch of the Clinton. 



170 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

editorially in 1826.-'^ By the census of 1830 there 
appear to have been nearly a thousand settlers within 
a radius of half a dozen miles. ^^° 

The village received its first strong impulse from 
New Englanders about 1827 when it is said that a 
colony of about sixty people made it their home.^^^ 
We are told that it was not alone for the advantage of 
the trails at this point nor for the openness of the 
country nor for the richness of the soil that these set- 
tlers chose the spot, but because its environment re- 
sembled New England scenery; and pioneer reminis- 
cences show that usually, other things equal, this sen- 
timent was a strong influence in early settlement. ^^^ 
The characteristic New England Congregational so- 
ciety was formed at once in Romeo and held meetings 
in a log schoolhouse in 1828. By 1830 the character 
of the village had been fairly determined. In that 
year, or in the following, it was regularly laid out into 
village lots.^^^ In 1836 it is said to have had thirty 
frame buildings; but stumps still remained in the 
streets, and there appear to have been yet no regular 
stages to connect it with the older settlements.^^* The 
New England element in Romeo's population gave it 

279. Gazette, May 14, 1824, and May 30, 1826. 

280. U. S. Census (1830), 153, under Washington Township. 

281. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 314; History of Macomb County (1882), 

621. 

282. For the beauty of this location see an article in the Detroit 

Daily Advertiser for January 30, 1837, describing the site 
as a beautiful elevation of one or two hundred feet slop- 
ing gently to a broad and extensive country about it. 

283. History of Macomb County, 613. It was not incorporated 

until 1838. 

284. Ibid., 626. 



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MICHIGAN TERRITORY ABOUT 1824 

(Mich. Hisl. Colls., XXXVIII, 634) 

This map was drawn by Philu Iv Judd of Detroit, and engraved I:)y J. O. Lewis for the Legislative 
Council of the Territory. The scale is twenty miles to an inch. An original coi)y is in the State Library 
at Lansing. Seep. 56 (n. 23). 



THE EAS'I'ERN SHORE 171 

early a reputation for culture and education which was 
a strong inducement for further settlement there. ^^^ 

Utica's growth was slower than that of Romeo until 
1831, when the large share it received of the immigra- 
tion of that year led it to dream of becoming the 
metropolis of the county. It had in the Clinton River 
a great source of nattiral power which attracted to it 
considerable capital for investment in manufacture. ^^^ 
It seemed to have much to hope from the canal which 
was projected to connect it with Rochester and the 
country farther west, as well as from the railway which 
was to be built from Detroit. Shops, mills and banks 
were started. This promise was destined to vanish in 
the hard times soon to follow, but these early begin- 
nings left many substantial foundations for a thriving 
settlement. -^^ 

The relation of inland to shore settlement in the 
Raisin River country in 1837 was quite the opposite 
of that on the Clinton River. It resembled in relative 
importance rather the settlement along the St. Clair. 

285. Academic teaching seems to have been afforded there as 

early as 1835, by a graduate of WilHams College who was 
formerly the principal of a seminary in Utica, New York. 
History of Macomb County (1882), 629-630. See also the 
communication signed "A Southerner," in the Detroit 
Daily Advertiser for January 30, 1837. Blois mentions 
an academy with an attendance of fifty pupils in 1838. 
Gazetteer, 353. 

286. There is said to have been a sawmill and a distillery at this 

site in 1828, and a second distillery was built in 1831. 
History of Macomb County (1882), 719. Utica appears 
to be the village of "Harlow" mentioned in an article in 
the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for June 8, 
1831, as the second village of the county. 

287. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 313. 



172 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

In one respect it was similar — the key to it was the 
central stream of the region. Monroe County, al- 
though it was apparently in a direct line with immi- 
gration, received its settlers for many years by way of 
Detroit, and many were the complaints of bad roads 
by which settlers had to reach the county from that 
point. -^^ Misrepresentations of its lands had also to 
be met as in the northern counties. "We regret," says a 
Monroe paper, ' 'that any attempt should be made eith- 
er from ignorance or prejudice to excite unfavorable im- 
pressions against us."-^^ But the greatest obstacle to 
inland settlement in that county was the heavy forest. 
Principally for this reason the interior lands of Monroe 
County lagged at first far behind those of Lenawee 
County, which were still farther inland but more 
open.^^° 

Although favorable reports of these interior lands 
along the Raisin were made early, little attention seems 
to have been given to them by settlers until about 
1822. In 1819 the United States surveyor declared 
that they were the best tract of country he had ever 
surveyed. ^^^ In 1822 a party of men from Detroit ex- 
plored the Raisin nearly to its sources, reporting numer- 
ous mill sites, uplands of rich sandy soil, and pure water, 
also that the river might be navigated for seventy or 
eighty miles by "perogues" of a size sufficient to enable 

288. For instance, the Gazette, April 19, 1822. 

289. The Michigal Sentinel, quoted in the Gazette, December 13, 

1825. 

290. History oj Monroe County (1882), 285-286. 

291. Gazette, August 6, 1819. See also the same paper for 

August 4, 1820, calling the attention of emigrants to the 
Raisin River lands. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 173 

them to bear produce down to Monroe. ^^- In the lat- 
ter year the attention of intending New York emi- 
grants was called to these interior lands by the Onon- 
daga Joumalr^^ The desire to encourage immigration 
to them, as well as the difficulty of reaching the Raisin 
by land, is reflected in the public notice to emigrants 
in 1822 that free boats to Monroe would meet every 
steamboat arriving at Detroit.-^"* A little later the 
growing demand for these lands led to a division of the 
labor of the Detroit Land Office, by establishing the 
Monroe Land District and the new land office at Mon- 
roe. The reaction of these activities upon the growth 
of Monroe has been noted above. 

The most important centers of inland settlement in 
this county were Dundee and Petersborough. Both 
were good mill sites on the Raisin, respectively about 
eighteen and twenty-five miles from the river's mouth, 
and near the old Indian trail which led out of Lenawee 
County along the river towards Monroe. Their posi- 
tion placed them on the shortest practicable route from 
the southwest to Lake Erie. Travel over this route 
was much increased after the opening of the land office 
at Monroe in 1824, and many people then gained their 
first knowledge of this region as they passed to lands 
which they had bought or intended to buy further 
west. A tavern to accommodate this travel is said to 



292. Gazette, August 2, 1822. This exploration probably had 

some relation to the founding of Tecumseh on the upper 
Raisin in 1824. 

293. Quotedin the Ca^e'/te for June 28, 1822. See also that paper 

for July 12, 1822, declaring this to be the first year of 
general attention to the Raisin River coimtry. 

294. Ibid., July 12, 1822. 



174 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

have been located at Dundee as early as 1831"^^ — prob- 
ably a settler's house which was regularly shared with 
the stranger. In 1838 there were at Dundee four saw 
mills, several factories and a flouring mill.-^'^ A tem- 
porary base of supplies for this back country was found 
in the French farms some miles up the Raisin. ^^'^ 

An inland point of vantage in Monroe County de- 
serving of mention was the Indian reservation at the 
junction of the Macon River with the Raisin. These 
small Indian reservations were usually spots of choice 
land. The Indian village was siirrounded by some sec- 
tions of land reserved by the treaty of 1807, six of 
which were ceded to the Government in 1817. Even 
before that year the advantage of this point was seen 
by a colony of people from Royalston, Massachusetts, ^^^ 
who supposed it was Government land, and who in- 
tended to buy when the land should come onto the 
market. They suffered the usual inconvenience which 
attended these mistakes, being obliged to break up 
their settlement and move away."^^ 

In Monroe Coimty in 1827 township organization 
apparently indicates that the area of greatest density 

295. Wing, History of Monroe County, 215. 

296. Blois, Gazetteer, 282. This point was at the junction of the 

river with the La Plaisance Bay Turnpike and the Lake 
Erie and Raisin River Railroad. The villages of Oakville 
and Lisbon, near the northern boundary of the county, 
are the only other village centers mentioned by Blois 
(pp. 312, 334). They were very small and of no later 
significance. 

297. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 160-161. 

298. Wing, History oj Monroe County, 46-47, 127; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., VI, 364. 

299. It is noteworthy that to this day not even a village has 

grown up there. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 175 

of population was on the lower Raisin, and this agrees 
with other data showing that the area of least density- 
was in the interior of the county towards the north- 
west. The shore townships away from the Raisin were 
large; the southernmost extended across the county to 
the western boundary. "^""^ Frenchtown preserves in its 
name that of the old French village on the Raisin and 
commemorates the source of the earliest population; 
the area of this township remained convStant through- 
out this period. In the interior the large northwestern 
township of Raisinville testifies to the slight settlement 
made there; it was altogether too large to be practi- 
cable for any but a very sparce population. The 
name suggests that settlers regarded the Raisin River 
as a chief factor in its possibilities. The division of 
the township by a north and south line two years later 
shows that the probable trend of immigration was 
along the Raisin, and the first name of the new town- 
ship, Flumen,^"^ seems to point again to the river as 
being uppermost in the motives of the settlers. The 
next year the creation of La Salle Township, ^°^ from 
Erie, points to the increase of shore settlement about 
Otter Creek. The year of the survey of the military 
road'^°'' through the northwestern part of the county 
(1832) saw a further subdivision of the old township of 
Raisinville in the creation of the new township of 
London, ^^'^ which was so formed as to hint at the pre- 

300. Territorial Laws, II, 477. 

301. Ibid., II, 720. Name changed to Summerfield, Territorial 

Laws, II, 763. 

302. Territorial Laws, III, 843. This act, for some reason, was 

confirmed by a later act, Territorial Laws, III, 907. 

303. Statutes at Large, IV, 561; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 222. 

304. Territorial Laws, III, 921. 



176 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

sence of settlers along the Saline and Macon rivers. 
Southwestern settlement is indicated in the creation 
of Whiteford Township^ °^ in 1834. To the south of 
Whitefordwas Port Lawrence Township, which though 
not today a part of Monroe County deserves mention 
because it was a part of it during this period; it 
contained the future Toledo.^°^ 

The position of the Monroe townships formed in 
1836-37 indicates the filling in of population in the 
northern and central parts of the county. ^°^ The same 
is shown by the census of 1837. The north ern_^ and 
southern inland townships, for equal areas, show 
about an equal population, while the larger figures for 
Summerfield and Raisinville show the central east and 
west influence of the river. Viewing the inland town- 
ships from north to south the central range in 1837 
numbered but a few more people than the western; 
and all of the inland counties together, about two- 
thirds of the county, numbered about one-half as 
many as the shore townships. This showed a strong 
preference for the lands about the old French centers 
on the eastern streams. From 1834 to 1837 the popu- 
lation of the whole county increased about 2,000.^°^ 

305. Ibid., Ill, 1276. 

306. Ibid., II, 478. Port Lawrence Township covered practically 

that area in Monroe County which was lost to the Terri- 
tory by the adjustment in 1837 of the Ohio boundary 
dispute. See the Gazette for August 29, 1817, for the 
estabhshment of a village at the head of Miami Bay; 
also Risdon's map (1825) for the "Bay Settlement." 

307. Session Laws (1835-36), 69, 79; (1837), 43. 

308. Population in 1834, 8,542. Blois, Gazetteer, 151; in 1837, 

10,646. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 177 

As a result of having a similar soil, heavy timber and 
little water power, the interior lands of Wayne County 
were quite as slow in settling as were those of Monroe. 
The soil varied from a heavy clay to a sandy loam, the 
latter being mainly in the south and west. The heavy 
timber in the western part of the county was broken 
by few openings, but when cleared, that portion was 
destined to be unexcelled for cereals. ^°^ For building 
and manufacture there were in addition to the tiinber 
large quantities of limestone, as in Monroe County. 
The sluggishness of the streams, due to the generally 
flat surface of Wayne County, deprived it of the good 
water power found so plentifully in Monroe. The 
nearest approach to the strong central current of 
the Raisin was the Rouge, which with its branches gave 
some power in the part of its course that lay through 
the undiilating portions of the west; excepting at 
Flat Rock, the Huron does not appear to have induced 
mill use in this county. The chief impediment to set- 
tlement seems to have been the heavy timber. Says 
the editor 6i a Detroit newspaper in 1832, reflecting 
the results of these physiographic conditions for settle- 
ment, "It has long been the subject of remark and 
surprise that whilst the new counties in our Territory 
are rapidly filling up, the county of Wayne seems to 
be overlooked. We can conceive of no other reason 
for this than the fact that the greater portion of this 
county consists of heavily timbered land and that 
settlers prefer to go farther for the sake of getting land 
which can be cleared with less expense. "^^° 

309. Blois, Gazetteer, 244. 

310. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, November 7, 1832. 

23 



178 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The two decisive advantages which Wayne Covmty 
had for rapidity of settlement were nearness to De- 
troit, and the presence, in its northern and central parts, 
of the two national turnpikes. In 1824, the year be- 
fore the survey of the Chicago Road was begun, land 
was purchased in the extreme west of the county in 
Plymouth Township, in the selection of which some typ- 
ical motives of settlement appear, the choice being in 
an opening, on the highest elevation in the county, at 
the confluence of two streams forming the main branch 
of the Rouge, not far from the Saginaw Turnpike and 
near the old Indian trail which was soon to become a 
national turnpike to Chicago. ^^^ About this center 
actual settlement and speculation went hand in hand. 
It seems that in 1827 the resident and nonresident 
owners of land in the township were about equal in 
number. Plymouth Township was organized in that 
year, and its comparatively small area, suggesting 
closeness of settlement, seems to confirm the impres- 
sion that the high land of the region near the water 
power of the Rouge, together with promising trans- 
portation facilities, mainly determined its early selec- 
tion. The votes polled in 1827 in an election which 
was likely to bring out the total voting strength of the 
township were only thirty ;^^- four years later, how- 
ever, all the land there had passed from the hands of 
the Government. ^^^ Considerable settlement must have 



311. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 470. The difficulty of getting to the 

place through thick undergrowths and deep quagmires, 
is told in Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 444. 

312. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 509. See the first tax-roll of Plymouth 

Township. Ihid., II, 581. 

313. Territorial Laws, II, 479. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 179 

taken place in the township to allow of its taking its 
present area in 1834.^^* Of equal area, two other town- 
ships were organized just eastward from it on the 
Chicago Road two years after the organization of 
Plymouth Township, '^^^ and from the easternmost of 
these were formed in 1833 two more,^^*^ each equal to 
the area that Plymouth took in the year following. 
Immediately southward, and occupying the whole 
southwestern part of the county, the large township 
of Huron on the river of that name was not disturbed 
in its area from the time of its organization (1827) 
until 1835.3^^ 

The distribution of population shown by the census 
of 1837 conveys the same idea as to the motives of 
settlement. The population was lightest in the south- 
west and along the shore. The bulk of the inland 
population was in the six northwestern townships, and 
of these the population of Plymouth Township was 
double that of any other ; it equalled half of the popula- 
tion of the shore townships exclusive of Detroit. The 
total inland population of the. county was more than 
four times as large as that of the shore townships ex- 
clusive of Detroit ; including Detroit, the proportion was 
about equal. Again, the village centers of the county 
mentioned by Blois, though small, were all in the 
northern townships and on either the Saginaw or 

314. Ibid., Ill, 1277. 

315. Ibid., II, 737. Cf. A4ich. Hist. Colls., IV, 57, for the first 

settlers of Nankin Township. 

316. Ibid., Ill, 985. 

317. Territorial Laws, II, 479; III, 1359. For the organization 

of townships m 1835-36 see Ibid., Ill, 136S, and Session 
Laws (1835-36), 80. 



180 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the Chicago Road.^^^^ From""l834 to 1837 the whole 
county gained about 7,000 people.^^^ 

The figures of the censuses of 1820, 1830, 1834 and 
1837 afford direct means by which to compare the 
growth of different parts of the section in white popula- 
tion. If we take Detroit's population in 1820 as a 
unit, and consider the three areas which are represented 
by (1) Monroe County, (2) Wayne County exclusive 
of Detroit and (3) all the country north of Wayne to 
Saginaw Bay, they ranked from south to north as 6, 
7 and 8. Their total white population was 6,303, 
which was fully ninety per cent of the 7,500 white 
people in the Lower Peninsula. ^^° 

St. Clair County appeared for the first time in the 
census of 1830, with a population of 1,114. Detroit's 
population at that time was about twice as much, and 
about equalled that of Macomb County; it was about 
one -half that of Wayne. From this it appears that 
the rural and village population of Wayne County 
was considerably larger than the total white popula- 
tion of the two northern counties together. It much 
exceeded the total population of Monroe County, 
which was then about 3,000. That is, the people 
above Wayne in this section about equalled in 
number those below, and the sum of the population 
of the two was about that of Wayne County inclusive 
of Detroit. '^-^ The population of the whole section in 
1830 was about a third of that in the whole Territory. 

318. Gazetteer, 269, 333, 342, 351. 

319. Poptilation in 1834, 16,638. Blois, Gazetteer, 15 L; in 1837, 

23,400. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 

320. U. S. Census (1820), 41. 

321. Ibid. (1830), 153. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 181 

But this statement results in an impression that must 
be modified somewhat when we consider percentages 
of gain. From the point of view of gains in percent- 
age, Wayne County inclusive of Detroit ranked low- 
est, about sixty-one per cent. The counties to the 
north of Wayne, which were the lowest numerically in 
proportion to area, showed the largest gain in per- 
centage; their population nearly trebled during the 
period. Monroe County slightly exceeded Wayne 
County with a gain of seventy-four per cent. 

In the four years following 1830, both numerical and 
percentage gains very much favored the southern 
counties. The totals in 1834 were:^^^ Wayne, 16,638; 
Monroe, 8,542; Macomb, 6,055; St. Clair, 2,244. 
Wayne's quota was about eight times that of St. Clair, 
nearly three times that of Macomb and twice that of 
Monroe. It is significant that the numerical propor- 
tions of 1830 between Wayne County and the areas 
above and below it, remained about the same. The 
total population of the section was considerably more 
than one-third of the white population of Michigan. 
The percentages of gain were: Monroe, 168; Wayne, 
144; Macomb and St. Clair together, 135. Allowing 
for difference in areas,^-^ the numerical gain since 
1820 was very much in favor of Wayne, the percentage 
of gain slightly in favor of Monroe, while both were 
unfavorable to the counties north of Wayne. In these 
figures the predominant factors were very probably 

322. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

323. Wayne, 600 sq. m.; Monroe, 532; Macomb, 458; St. Clair, 

935. St. Clair extended at that time northward to Lake 
Huron and included the "Thumb." 



182 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the tendency of Detroit to mass population in its 
vicinity, the influence of the national turnpikes through 
Wayne County, and the influence of Monroe's position 
on Lake Erie directly west of the chief sources of im- 
migration and in line with the much sought lands of 
the southern tier of counties. With these were com- 
bined the relatively side position of Macomb and St. 
Clair counties and a prejudice due to early misrepre- 
sentations. 

The amount and distribution of population in 1837 
showed some changes since 1834, resulting apparently 
from the diminished quantity of lands to be had at 
Government prices near the older centers and a reversal 
of opinion about lands before neglected through ill re- 
port. The totals for each county in 1837 were: Mon- 
roe 10,646; Wayne 23,400; Macomb 8,892; St. Clair 
6,337.^-^ The relative numerical proportions remained 
about the same as in 1834, excepting at the north, 
where St. Clair County showed the rapid rate of in- 
crease of over 300 per cent. This far exceeded the rate 
of gain in the other counties, and the numerical gain 
apparently would not have been exceeded by any if 
the population of Detroit were not counted. Macomb 
County exceeded both in numerical and percentage 
gains those of Monroe County. The combined gains 
of population in Macomb and St. Clair counties fully 
equalled those of Wayne and Monroe exclusive of 
Detroit. These figures show a decided turning of at- 
tention northward, of which another phase was the 
drift of population towards the Flint and Saginaw val- 
leys. In the whole section from Lake Huron to the 

324, Michigan Legislative Manual (1838) 72, 73. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 183 

Ohio boundary there were about 50,000 souls, amount- 
ing to two-sevenths of the 175,000 then in Michigan 
Territory.^ -^ 

The main sources of the population of this section 
have several times been hinted. The common im- 
pression that the btilk of it came from New York and 
New England is undoubtedly correct. There are no 
census figures to demonstrate this, yet every old pio- 
neer insists upon its truth, and an actual count of birth 
places given in the county histories and pioneer remi- 
niscences obviously would confirm it. A bit of such 
data may be given for illustration. Lewis Cass was 
born in Exeter, New Hampshire. ^-° Solomon Sibley, 
the first American settler in Detroit and its first mayor, 
was a native of Massachusetts.^-'^ William Wood- 
bridge, secretary of Michigan Territory after 1815, was 
born in Norwich, Connecticut.^-^ Austin E. Wing and 
Diodatus Noble, born in Massachusetts, and graduates 
of Williams College, were early settlers of Monroe. ^^^ 
From Pittsfield came Alcott C. Chapman, who at the 
start was probably Monroe's strongest personal in- 
fluence. ''^^° A Connecticut settler of great influence, 
Jeremiah Lawrence, ^^^ was one of the founders of 
Monroe. Other Connecticut settlers of prominence 
were Dr. Harry Conant from Mansfield, attendant 
physician of Lewis Cass in the expedition of 1820, who 

325. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

326. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass. 

327. Farmer, History of Detroit, II, 1032. 

328. Mathews, Expansion of New England, 231. 

329. Wing, History of Monroe County, 151. 

330. Ibid., 140. 

331. Ibid., 140. 



184 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

was an early settler in Monroe ;^^^ Thomas Ashley of 

Windham, the first lawyer admitted to the bar in the 

Northwest Territory, and who built the first frame 

house in Mt. Clemens in 1823;'^^^ and Judge Bunce of 

Hartford, well known in the early history of St. Clair 
County.334 

The biographical sketches of these men show that 
many of them did not come directly to Michigan from 
their native towns. They were men in search of the 
best opportunities, and many of them sojourned in 
New York or on the Ohio frontier. A good example 
of these places of temporary residence in Ohio is 
Marietta, ^^^ whence came many of Detroit's most 
prominent early settlers. The great number of set- 
tlers "from New York State" would be much reduced 
if those were subtracted who were born in New Eng- 
land. Btit there were very many prominent Mich- 
igan settlers of New York birth; typical of these was 
Edward D. Ellis, born in Niles, editor of the first 
newspaper published in Michigan south of Detroit 
(1825), at Monroe, ^^"^ and Aura P. Stewart, born in 
Canandaigua, a prominent promoter of settlement in 
St. Clair County.-^" 

Other eastern states, particularly Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, contributed a fair share of the early set- 
tlers. The foreign born, aside from those coming from 

332. Ibid., 160. 

333. History of Macomb County (1882), 239; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

VI, 358. 

334. History of St. Clair County (1883), 265. 

335. Campbell, Outlines, 217. 

336. Wing, History of Monroe County, 136, 491. 

337. History of St. Clair County (1883), 272. 



THE EASTERN SHORE 185 

Canada, made, a small proportion of the total popula- 
tion. A considerable Scotch settlement formed in the 
early thirties in northwestern Macomb County in 
Bruce Township. ^^* In 1834 a colony of Germans set- 
tled on the Clinton River in Macomb County about 
five miles southwest of Mt. Clemens,^^^ and by the end 
of the period Germans were coming to Wayne and 
Monroe counties. ^^'^ 



338. History of Macomb County (1882), 622, 742. 

339. Ibid., 569. 

340. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 255. 



CHAPTER IV 

The First Inland Counties 

TT might be expected that because of the position 
of the first inland counties that they, next after 
the shore counties, would be affected by the rising 
tide of immigration from the eastern states. As a 
matter of fact the earliest settlers reached this area 
quite as early as the first important accession of 
Americans came to the counties along the shore. 
The misleading reports of the early surveyors created 
a strong prejudice against its lands, but this mis- 
information insured that they would escape at least 
being apportioned as military bounty lands, which 
would leave them open to settlers after the completion 
of the Government survey and the opening of public 
sales. 

The first settlements in this section were made be- 
tween the years 1817 and 1826. This was the be- 
ginning of activity in the settling of Michigan Territory, 
a period extending from the beginning of the public 
land sales to the opening of important trafhc on the 
Erie Canal, on Lake Erie and on the Chicago Road. 
Detroit had become a city of over two thousand 
people by this time, and inland settlement was just 
getting a foothold in the rear of the earlier settlements 
along the shore. The openness of the new inland 
counties and the central position of the Chicago 
Road, which passed through their territory, made 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 187 

migration in that direction easy. Moreover, rich 
soil, good water power, and abundant timber, gave these 
counties an opportunity to intercept immigration 
bound toward the southwestern counties. There was 
promise that this section might soon overtake the older 
one in population and development. 

The first county of the section which received 
permanent settlers was Oakland. Excepting the 
French communities on the shore and the few 
Americans at Detroit, this Oakland settlement was as 
early as any, antedating by some years any important 
beginning eastward in the interior of Macomb, despite 
the fact that the first settlers of Oakland came thither 
across it. Pontiac was founded abotit the same time 
eastern settlers began the active settlement of Monroe 
and Mt. Clemens. Beginnings were made at Rochester 
in 1817, at Pontiac in 1818, at Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor 
and Tecumseh in 1824, and at Adrian in 1826. In 
these dates of first settlement in the section, three 
features are of special interest : their order of prece- 
dence from north to south ; the fact that those in 
the north antedate considerably those in the south; 
and that all are fully as early as the dates of inland 
settlements in the shore section. 

This order of settlement can hardly find a sufficient 
explanation in differences of environment. The ad- 
vantages of water power, timber, soil, and natural 
beauty, were quite evenly distribtited. The presence 
of water power so uniformly throughout the section 
was due in part to the fact that the three principal 
streams and their branches which formed a network 
of waterways, had common influences bearing tipon 



188 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

their rate of descent and upon the amount, regulation, 
and position of the water supply. In the western part 
of the section, roughly paralleling the eastern shore, 
lay a common w^atershed, which began its arc-like 
course just westward of Lenawee in Hillsdale County 
and extended northeastward through Washtenaw and 
Oakland. As a consequence the principal streams ran 
approximately eastward, and offered access to their 
mill sites either by small boats or by the Indian trails 
which led along their banks. The power of these 
streams — the Clinton, the Huron and the Raisin — 
received its head principally in the four large elevations 
of the watershed. The elevation in Oakland County, 
at the source of the Clinton, reached a height of over 
five hundred feet, and the inclination of the surface, 
dropping over three hundred feet to the eastern border 
of the county, gave the Clinton a fairly rapid rate of 
descent.^ The Huron had an inclination which tended 
to give a similar rate. Its head was partly in the Oak- 
land peak but mainly in that on the borders of Washte- 
naw and Jackson counties; and though the latter was 
about a hundred feet lower, this was compensated 
by the fact that the eastern border of Washtenaw 
at the point where the Huron crossed was about a 
hundred feet lower than Oakland County at the 
crossing of the Clinton.^ The current of the Raisin 

1. Tackahury, Atlas, 10-11; see also contour map opposite p. 

10 in Tackabury, and the plate "Topography" in the 
Ann Arbor Folio. The Gazette, May 23, 1826, speaks 
editorially of the water power in the eastern part of Oak- 
land County as more ample than in any other part of the 
Territory. 

2. Tackabury, Atlas, contoiir map opposite p. 10. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 189 

was more rapid than either, and its long sinuous course 
cutting between high banks gave many excellent mill 
sites. It took its head from the southern peak, which 
exceeded the height of that in Oakland County by a 
hundred feet, and allowed a drop of five hundred feet 
to that portion of the Raisin which was within this 
section. 

The volume of water in these streams was large, 
constant, and little subject to variation through seasonal 
changes; therefore the pioneer mill could operate 
throughout the year without serious intermission from 
droughts. These features were partly due to the 
great number of small lakes at the headwaters of the 
streams, which acted as natiural reservoirs. There 
were some four hundred lakes in Oakland County of a 
considerable size, covering a total surface of six hundred 
acres. ^ There were not so many in Washtenaw,"* 
and there were comparatively few in Lenawee; but 
they were plentiful west of Lenawee and Washtenaw 
in eastern Hillsdale and Jackson counties, affecting the 
water supply of the Raisin and the Huron. The 
position and distribution of these lakes suggest their 
origin and their relation to the drainage of the section. 
They filled depressions in the glacial drift along the 
crest of the watershed, and their number was ap- 
parently greatest in proportion to the irregularity of 
the surface. They received and conserved the rain- 
fall both directly and through sources of supply from 
under ground. Springs were very common in the 

3. History of Oakland County (1876), 117. 

4. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 146; plate "Topogra- 

phy" in the Ann Arbor Folio. 



190 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

section owing to the loose texture of the soil, and 
many of these reservoirs were "spring lakes. "^ An- 
other cause which increased and regulated the sup- 
ply of power in the parts of these streams which lay 
in this section, was the fact that so many of the tribu- 
taries were received near their headwaters, owing to 
which, as well as because of the lakelets, there was 
exercised so constant a control that the dry season had 
little effect upon the power of the main streams. 

Abundant and excellent timber awaited the settler in 
all parts of these counties. They afforded a great 
variety of oak, beech, maple, elm, black-walnut and 
whitewood. Quantities of pine grew on the better 
sandy land, a soil which was fairly common in the lake 
region of Oakland County. Pioneers speak of the 
"Big Pinery" in Orion Township,*^ and the presence of 
pine elsewhere in the county is frequently mentioned 
in reminiscences. . Variations in density of forest were 
due partly to differences of soil and partly to the fires 
which the Indians had been wont to set annually; the 
Indian name meaning "burnt district" for the region 
about the Huron is said to be a reminiscence of this 
custom.^ Heavily timbered land could be found in all 
the counties, but usually only in patches, which alter- 

5. The Ann Arbor Folio, 14. 

6. History of Oakland County (1876), 255; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

Ill, 568. It is said that the best pine land in the county 
was first visited in the winter of 1820-21 by settlers 
near Silver Lake. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 167-168. 

7. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 394. Firing and girdling were the 

means used by the Indians to clear the forest for agricul- 
ture and pursuit of game. Hoffman describes a similar 
practice of the white settlers. A Winter in the West, I, 
175. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 191 

nated with "openings," plains, and small prairies, 
sometimes all to be found within the area of a single 
Government tow^nship.^ A chief characteristic of the 
section was its "oak-openings;" the name of Oakland 
for the northern county commemorates the forests of 
these trees. ^ The "openings" often covered wide 
stretches of land which were comparatively free from 
underbrush and in which the trees were far enough 
apart to permit an oxteam to go miles in any direc- 
tion, ^° These lands, tree-covered yet comparatively 
open, were specially prized by the pioneer. The trees 
were taken to indicate a fertile soil, and the openness 
insured cultivation and transportation with compara- 
tive ease. This, in part, explains the position of the 
line of settlements which were early made just west- 
ward of the margin of the heavily timbered clay soil of 
the shore area. 

Whether or not it is a mere coincidence that the 
order of these first settlements in this section follows 
the order of the density of timber, it is certain that 
Oakland and Lenawee counties originally presented in 
this particular the widest contrast in the section. 
Lenawee contained in its eastern and southern parts the 
only considerable, continuous, heavy timber of the sec- 
tion, ^^ and there settlement began latest. These first 

8. Blois, Gazetteer, 228, 234, 243; Combination Atlas Map of 

Lenawee County, 15; Historical and Biographical Record 
of Lenawee County, 15, 54. 

9. A very pleasing description of the oak openings and lakes of 

Oakland County is given by a contemporary in the Ga- 
zette for September 1, 1820. 

10. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 225. 

11. Lanman, Michigan, 285; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 225. 



192 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

settlements in the section were primarily farming com- 
munities; the food supply was the most pressing need. 
Timber more than enough for building and fencing ap- 
pears to have been looked upon as an encumbrance, or 
at least as a secondary advantage. Pontiac, Tecumseh 
and Adrian had the character of "lumbering towns," in 
whose settlement lumbering in the modern sense appears 
to have been one of the underlying motives. It was a 
great advantage to have lumber cut near at hand, for 
it was expensive and difficult to import, and it was 
seen that with the growth of the settlement the de- 
mand for building-material would increase. The desire 
to have a gristmill was quite as strong a motive in the 
choice of power sites for first settlement. The alter- 
native to having such a convenience was to pound the 
grain on a block, grind it in a hand mill, or make a 
journey of several days to a distant mill, perhaps only 
to find the miller sick or absent, or the mill out of repair. 
Though the relatively greater density of the forest in 
Lenawee County undoubtedly affected the rate and 
direction of the extension of the frontier as well as the 
areal growth in population, it probably did not ma- 
terially affect the founding of Tecumseh and Adrian. 

Like the timber, the soil in this section was of good 
quality throughout, and of great variety. There are 
six different kinds of soil formation, and very sugges- 
tive are their positions. ^^"^ Their general position, in 
long belts approximately parallel with the watershed 
and with the eastern shore, suggests that they were 
deposited in succession under the retreating waters of 

11a. Michigan Geological Survey, Map, 1907. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 193 

an ancient lake, which determined that the bottoms 
of the main streams of the drainage system should 
cross them nearly at right angles. It also gave them 
those common features which tended toward uniformity 
in the power of the currents. We have seen that the 
settler encountered along the whole of the shore sec- 
tion a dense forest of which the soil determinant was 
the stiff lake clay, and this clay formation extended 
over into these counties; it made the soil of nearly the 
entire southeastern half of Lenawee, of the larger part 
of Washtenaw southward from Ypsilanti and east of 
Saline, and of a large portion of southeastern Oakland. 

The extensive burr-oak plains which stretched along 
the eastern slope of the watershed had for a soil de- 
terminant a very good quality of sandy land. This soil 
formed a large area through the lake region, and was 
a characteristic soil of Oakland County; it was one of 
the chief conditions of its pine forests. Southward from 
Oakland County the bulk of the sandy land lay west 
of this section, covering only the western part of 
Washtenaw, and in Lenawee County the northwestern 
townships. 

Between these two border areas there lay through 
the heart of the section three soil belts, very irregular 
in shape yet approximately parallel, which contained 
the most fertile land in these counties. In the back- 
ground, as it were, of wider extent than the two other 
soils and displacing them in large irregular patches, 
was a loose-textured drift covered vv^ith oak openings. 
On the east of this there was a rolling clay drift which 
bore mainly beech, maple and oak and at the west lay a 

25 



194 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

level clay area densely forested with beech and 
maple. 

The general position of these soils and their mutual 
relations, favored some variety in their distribution. 
There was in each county some soil of each variety, 
but the counties varied in the proportions of a particu- 
lar soil. Of the level clay soil, for example, there was 
as much in Lenawee County as in the two other 
counties together. The two heavy clay soils pre- 
dominated in this portion,^- with their heavy forests 
and the accompanying unfavorable effect upon initial 
settlement. The soils of Washtenaw were distributed 
in fairly equal proportions, and the land was fairly open 
except in the extreme eastern part. In Oakland the 
predominant soils were a loose-textured drift and the 
better class of sandy land, making this northern end 
of the section very open and attractive to the settler, 
promising immediate returns for his efforts. The rela- 
tive openness of the country appears to have depended 
in some measure upon the nature and distribution of 
its soils, and it was the openness of the land rather 
than its quality that appears to have been the stronger 
motive in inducing the initial settlements. There is 
small evidence that when even the later settler chose 
his farm he consvilted the particular constituents of the 
soil. Instead, he judged from the general indications 



12. Mich. Geol. Survey, Report. 1907, map in pocket; Blois, 
Gazetteer, 228, 234, 24:3; Combination Atlas Map of Len- 
awee Coimty, 12, 15, 16; Hist, and Biog. Record of Len- 
awee County, 11, 15, 54, 56; Ann Arbor Folio; "p. 1, and 
plate "Areal Geology;" History oj Washtenaw County 
(1881), 141-146. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 195 

of its fertility," satisfied if in addition it were easy to 
clear and to cultivate. Much less, apparently, did the 
finer differences determine the order of the founding of 
the first settlements. They were all in the "openings" ; 
but whereas Pontiac, Ann Arbor and Adrian were 
founded on different soils, the first settlements made 
respectively in the three counties — Rochester, Ypsi- 
lanti and Tecumseh — were settled on the same quality 
of soil,^"* at points furnishing good water power and 
near plenty of timber. The reason why the site at 
the north should have been chosen nine years before 
that at the south, must be sought elsewhere. 

Aesthetic motives probably weighed less with the 
practical Yankee than economic motives; yet other 
things equal, his choice of a location would undoubtedly 
tend to be influenced by that sense for natural beauty 
which was bred into him by his native hills. He would 
welcome a spot that should remind him of his old home. 
It may be recalled that there was in the air at this pe- 
riod a romantic sentiment alism about nature, which 
preceded and accompanied the rise of natural religion; 
something of the presence of this was felt by travelers. 
DeToqueville, who visited the northern part of this 
section in 1833, wrote in a vein in which this spirit 
seems to be reflected ; he says : 

"After we left Mr. Williams, we pursued our road 
through the woods. From time to time a little lake 
(this district is full of them) shines like a white table- 
cloth under the green branches. The charm of these 

13. See, for example, the long neglect of the fertile plains in 

Oxford Township, Oakland County. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
Ill, 568. 

14. According to the Geological Survey map (1907). 



100 KCONOMIC ANP SOCIAL lU'XUNNlNGS 

lovely spots, as yet untotumtod b\' man, aiul ^vh^^■o 
peace and silence remain inidisUirbed, can hardly be 
imaginctl. I have climbed the ^vild and solitary pavsses 
of the Alps, where natnre refnses to obe\' the hand of 
man. and displaying;' all her terrors, tills the mind with 
an exciting and overwhelming sensation of gTcatness. 
The solitude here is equally deep, but the emotions 
it excites are ditYerent. In this tlowery wilderness. 
where, as in Milton's Paradise, all seems prepared t"or 
the reception of man, the feelings produced are tran- 
quil adniiration, a soft melancholy, a vague aversion to 
civilized life, and a sort of savage instinct, which cause 
you to regret that soon this enchanting solitude will be 
no more."^'' 

Great natural beauty characterized the whole section, 
but the surface configuration, the distribution of lakes 
and streams, and the relative density of the forest, 
caused some degi'ee of difference. AWhere there was the 
least variety in soil and siu'face, there was the least 
variety in general. At the south the clay fonnation of 
southern and eastern Lenawee was comparatively flat 
and accompanied by the monotony of heavy forest. 
In the northern part of the county where it was rolling 
and in places hilly there were small lakes and forest 
openings; it was this part, in the vicinit}^ of the 
lakes along the Chicago Road, that first received the 
attention of settlers after the foimding of Tecumseh 
and Adrian. ^^"' The choice of Tecumseh for a settle- 



15. Do Tocqucville, in A Fortnight in tJic Wilderness, as quoted 

in Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 39. 

16. Tackabury, Atlas, 114; Historical and Biographical Record 

of Lenawee Coiintv, II, 11, IS, 18; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
VlII, 198. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 197 

ment is said to have Vjeen owing partly to the beauty 
of the environment.'^ Blois speaks of the "high and 
beautiful banks" of the I'laisin."* The trarlition that 
Washtenaw County bears in its name''-* an Indian 
memorial of the pristine beauty of its landscape may 
have little truth ; but Blois records that its pleasantly 
alternating prairies, oak openings, and heavily timbered 
lands, presentefl to the settler "a very beautiful and 
picturesque aspect." Of the openness of the country 
and its pleasing contrast with the lands farther east, the 
traveler Hoffman writes in 1833: 

"They build almost altogether in the oak-openings; 
and as the country is now undulating, I have seen sfjme 
cabins very prettily situated in clumps of oaks, a gun- 
hot from the road, with fields of young wheat extend- 

mg in every direction around them I 

have now got among the rolling land in a region full of 
lakes and oak-openings, of which I had hitherto had 
only a taste. I need hardly say how much more grate- 
ful such a country is to my eye than the level thickly 
timbered lands about Detroit and Monroe. "^"^ 

17. Millard, Early History of T^navjee County, 7; Mich Hi'jt. 

Colls., XXXVIII, 479. 

18. Blois, Gazetteer, 349. 

19. History of Washtenaw County C1881), 120; ^diikc^, Past and 

Present of Washtenaw County ^Chicago, 1906j, .582-.583; 
Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 393-394; XX'XVIII, 4.53. The 
name was given by the Indians to the whole region west 
of Wayne County, and was given to the county as the 
first to be organized from it. 

20. IIolTman, A Winter in the West, I, 156. Hoffman had come 

from Detroit via Monroe and Tecumseh. See also a con- 
temfx.»rary description C1829; by a traveler from Upijer 
Canada, as quoted in Beakes, Past and Present of Wash- 
tenaw County, 5.37; and Lan.sing Swan's Journal (1841 J, 
18 19. 



198 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The irregularity of the surface was greatest in Oak- 
land County, where the numerous elevations gave fine 
prospects over a wide area of lake country. A pioneer 
explorer of the region wrote in his diary in 1822 : 

"We also saw several of the celebrated lakes spoken 
of by former exploring parties into the interior. One 
of these, immediately in the rear of Mr. Williams' 
house, is in the highest degree romantic and beautiful. 
. Before supper, at the instance of Judge 
Sprague, we ascended a conical elevation of land very 
precipitous and lofty, from the summit of which, for 
many miles in circumference, we were presented with a 
view of a most picturesque and beautifully diversified 
country. Lakes, valleys, uplands and groves of pine 
and other timbers here met the eye to an extent that 
occasioned an equal degree of surprise and pleasure. "^^ 

A peak near Pontiac, called by the settlers "Bald 
Mountain," rose to the height of some hundred feet 
above the surrounding country, and the beauty of the 
view from its summit is mentioned by many pioneers. ^^ 
One of them, describing the trip of the first exploring 
party into the region, speaks of the "shouts of joy 
which again and again burst from their lips as they 
looked upon the lovely landscapes."-^ This great 
beauty very probably stimulated the desire of these 
early visitors to make the county their home; yet it is 
doubtful whether the superior beauty of Oakland 
County would have weighed against the practical ad- 
vantages of either of the other two if the latter had 
been the first to come to their notice. 



21. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 471. 

22. History of Oakland County (1876), 117. 

23. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 565. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 199 

At Detroit there had been knowledge of the central 
part of this section at least as early as 1809, when 
French traders established a post near the site of 
Ypsilanti.-' But the early knowledge that these men 
had they probably took pa'ns not to share with in- 
tending agricultural settlers, who would have inter- 
fered with their trading operations by dispersing the 
Indians, clearing the forests, and driving away the 
fur-bearing animals. It is said that these traders 
helped to create the tradition that the interior was 
worthless for agriculture, yet the first settlement in 
the section was made not there, but in that part which 
had the greatest ill repute, and it was made very soon 
after that reputation had been reasserted by the false 
reports of the first surveyors. 

It will be observed that the order of precedence in 
the dates of the first settlements, is that of their direct 
distance from the shore and from Detroit. Detroit was 
even at this early date the permanent home of busi- 
ness men who, as soon as the public land sales opened 
there, were on the lookout for good opportunities. 
Moreover, the asset which they naturally agreed upon 
as having the greatest value for a new center of settle- 
ment was nearness to Detroit. These two factors, 
nearness to the shore and to Detroit, helped to deter- 
mine the order of progress in the new United States 
survey, and were consequently decisive influences in 

24. Ann Arbor Folio, 1; History of Washtenaw County (1881), 
1108. The boundaries of the "four French claims, 
patented to them by authority of Congress in 1811, may 
still be seen in place of section lines on the map of the 
count}^ at that point. See also Risdon's map (1825); 
Ann Arbor Folio, plate "Topography;" and Beakes, 
Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 540-542. 



200 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

securing priority of settlement for Oakland. The im- 
mediate cause of the first .settlement in Oakland 
County was an unofficial report to friends made by 
Benjamin Graham, an assistant surveyor, who was 
working in the eastern part of that county in 1816, 
which led to the sending forth of an exploring party 
that year;^° in the following March three families 
from Mt. Clemens, one of them that of Mr. Graham's 
father, settled at the site of Rochester in the township 
of Avon."*^ The second impulse to settlement issued 
directly from Detroit; it seems to have been indepen- 
dent of the Avon colony, though news from there, as 
well as reports directly from the national surveyors, 
could have reached Detroit easily. It is apparent that 
the new interest at Detroit was stimulated by the 
opening of the newly surveyed lands of the county to 
public sale. As in the case of the Avon colony, set- 
tlement was preceded by an investigation. A small 
party setting out from Detroit in the autumn of 1818 
followed the Saginaw Trail well beyond the site of 
Pontiac, as far as the vicinity of Waterford. The re- 
ports they made are said to have been so encouraging 
as to have "electified the hearts of the Americans at 
Detroit, and to have utterly astounded the French- 
men."^^ A second party in the same autumn, accom- 
panied by women, went as far as Little Springs in 
Springfield Township. ^^ The sum of these mvestiga- 



25. 


History of Oakland County (1876), 26. 


26. 


Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 569; VII, 561; XXII, 405; XXXI, 




152. 


27. 


Ibid., Ill, 565. 


28. 


Ibid., Ill, 566. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 201 

tions formed the basis upon which was organized in 
November, 1818, the Pontiac Company, a speculative 
venture directed mainly by Detroit people who pro- 
posed to acquire lands on the CHnton and to foster a 
village as a means of exploiting them,-^ and Pontiac 
was founded.^'' 

The United^States surveyors proceeded southward 
and were making reports on Washtenaw and Lenawee 
counties in" 1819. In that year the Saginaw Indian 
treaty led the French traders to abandon their post at 
the site of Ypsilanti, and wishing to increase the value 
of the lands granted to them by the Government in 
1811, they now had a motive for making the advan- 
tages of the section known.^^ Attention was also 
strongly directed to the southern part of the section 
by Governor Cass's expedition,^- members of which, 
including Governor Cass, passed through there over 
the Chicago Trail in 1820. This expedition, under the 
auspices of the National Government, had for one of 
its special objects the gaining of information about the 
interior of Michigan for the purpose of advancing its 
settlement. Its results w^ere published officially, and 
Governor Cass made a special effort to distribute the 
reports widely; as governor of the Territory, he had 
for one of his main interests in the expedition the 
refutation of ill reports about the interior, in order to 

29. Ihid., Ill, 560; History of Oakland County (1876), 68. 

30. See Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 356-358, for a 

characteristic "celebration" at the site of Pontiac on the 
occasion of the founding of the village. 

31. The "north claim" was bought in 1824 by a New York 

settler and became the site of Ypsilanti village. 

32. McLaughlin, Lewis Cass, 119. 



202 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

encourage immigration. It is apparently impossible 
nov/ to single out the direct effects upon settlement 
from these reports, but soon afterward, in 1822, two 
purchases of land were made near the site of Ypsilanti 
amounting to about two hundred acres. One of these 
parcels was bought, apparently for speculation, by 
Judge Woodward, of Detroit^^, who undoubtedly be- 
came well acquainted with the results of the expedi- 
tion through Governor Cass. Fifteen purchases by 
Detroit parties are said to have been made in 1823 
near Ypsilanti and in Superior and Ann Arbor town- 
ships; these were also apparently for speculative pur- 
poses, in anticipation of the Chicago Road which was 
then being talked about. 

The first reports that are known directly to have in- 
duced settlement in Washtenaw County came in 1823 
from Monroe fishermen whose operations extended up 
the Huron River as far as the French claims.^"* These 
men, leading thither a party of former Ohio neighbors 
who had come to Michigan by way of Monroe village 
in search of good farms, settled with them on the 
banks of the Huron near a grove about a mile south- 
east of the present site of Ypsilanti, and in honor of a 
leading member of the group, Benjamin Woodruff, the 
settlement was named "Woodruff's Grove." These 
were the first permanent settlers in the county. It was 
to their interest to make immediate connections with 
Detroit, and the colony received a slight accession from 
there the first year. The constant interchange of in- 



33. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 401; Beakes, Past and Present of 

Washtenaw County. 545. 

34. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1099. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 203 

formation at the chief port of the Territory, where men 
came together from all parts and at a time when land- 
looking was becoming a principal interest, tended to 
make all that was known about the interior a common 
possession. There may well have been direct relation 
between this settlement and the one made in the fol- 
lowing year at Ypsilanti, and as well between these and 
that at Ann Arbor nine miles further up the river; 
the first settlers of Ann Arbor, John Allen and Elisha 
W. Rumsey, are said to have met by chance in De- 
troit and to have come together into the county with 
their families. 

In 1823 Austin E. Wing, a prominent citizen of 
Monroe, directed the attention of an intending settler 
to the lands on the upper portion of the Raisin River, 
with the result that an exploring expedition was 
made the same year, and a settlement in 1824.^^ 
It is significant that this impulse was about contem- 
porary with the establishment of the Monroe Land 
Office, for the purpose of selling the southern lands 
opened by the Indian treaties of Saginaw and Chi- 
cago. Wing had been a member of the Pontiac Com- 
pany in 1818,^'^ and one of the early promoters of 
Monroe village." He now became a member of a part- 
nership whose aim was to found a village at the site of 
Tecumseh. The other partners were two New York 
settlers, Musgrove Evans and Joseph Brown, brothers- 
in-law; the former, who came to Michigan in 1823 
and met Wing in Detroit, acted upon his advice, ex- 



35. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 40. 

36. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 560. 

37. Michigan Biographies, 704. 



204 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

plored the northern part of Lenawee Comity, and chose 
the site of Tecumseh for a settlement. ^^ Apparently 
independent of this colony, except in so far as the 
colony may have attracted attention to the region, 
a settlement was made two years later at the site of 
Adrian.^^ 

To cast a glance back over the preceding pages: 
there appear as the essential factors in the priority of 
Oakland County's settlement (1) its nearness to De- 
troit and consequent priority in the survey of its lands, 
(2) the personal influence and interest of one of the 
surveyors of that county, (3) the opening of the public 
lands to sale at Detroit, leading to explorations into 
the country nearest to the city, (4) the superior nat- 
ural advantages of the county in openings, water 
power, timber, variety of soil, and beauty of scenery, 
which enabled the county to hold attention, and (5) 
the enterprise of Detroit men who were willing to risk 
money to make a beginning so near to that city. Far- 
ther south, the granting of the French claims at Ypsi- 
lanti probably drew some notice, and Cass's expedition 
emphasized the advantages of that part of the section, 
giving strength to the agitation for a military road 
through it to connect the forts at Detroit and Chicago. 
A new impulse was given to this agitation by the 
progress of work on the Erie Canal. Settlement was 
precipitated by the direct influence of the Huron 
River fishermen and of Evans' exploration on the upper 
Raisin. It is significant that the dates of first settle- 
ment in the upper and lower parts of the section cor- 

38. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 225, 226. 

39. Ibid., I, 229. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 205 

respond approximately with those of the opening of 
land offices at Detroit and Monroe. "^^ Apparently the 
causes of delay in settling the lower part of the section 
were principally {\) its relative distance from Detroit 
and from the shore, making it harder to reach and 
further from a base of supplies, (2) the absorption of 
interest in the lands of Oakland, whose settlement was 
promoted by a strong commercial company back of its 
main nucleus of settlement at Pontiac, and (3) the 
availability of open land in the older section, especially 
in Macomb County, and of river lands in Monroe, 
Wayne and St. Clair. 

A serious check to the settlement of this section 
was the difficulty attending the transportation of 
both persons and goods. The natural avenues of 
approach were by river and trail. At the north was 
the Clinton River and the Saginaw Trail, at the south 
the Huron River and the trails leading from Detroit 
and Monroe. The most direct route from Detroit to 
Oakland County was the trail leading northwest into 
the Saginaw country, but in the wet season the 
long marsh which crossed it near Detroit offered a seri- 
ous barrier. One settler writes of his experience in 
the spring of 1818,'*^ that he started for Pontiac (from 
Detroit) with a number of men employed by the com- 
pany, three oxen, a cart, and one woman as passenger, 
and that he had to cross a swamp about six miles wide 
which was like a sea of mud, where the team got stuck 
and the woman was obliged to wade out. Until about 
1830 this route is said to have been almost impassable 

.40. Ibid., II, 367. 
41. Ibid., VI, 385. 



206 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

between Detroit and Royal Oak in the wet season, ex- 
cepting by oxsleds and similar convey ances."*- Before 
it was improved, many Pontiac settlers preferred the 
trail along the banks of the Clinton to Mt. Clemens; 
and in the first days of Pontiac, goods and even shingles 
for the mill were brought by that route on pack horses. ^^ 
The founders of the Avon colony came to the county 
by the same route,'*^ and if one may judge from the 
fact that they settled just below the first rapids in the 
river,"*^ the possibility of navigating the river at least 
by small craft was in their minds, as well as the 
desire for water power. Later settlers had better 
roads. The Government began early the construc- 
tion of a military turnpike over the Saginaw Trail 
between Detroit and Pontiac^'' The impulse from im- 
migration after 1830 caused several new roads to be 
projected the location of which helps to explain the 
relationships of the new settlements one with another 
and with neighboring counties. '^^ Agitation for a rail- 

42. Ibid., I, 380, 381; XXII, 407; History of Oakland County 

(1876), 132, 166. 

43. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 380; XXII, 407. See an editorial in 

the Detroit Gazette for May 23, 1826, for the good condi- 
tion of this route. 

44. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 569; History of Oakland ■ County 

(1876), 26, 130. . 

45. In 1827 The Clinton River Navigation Company was 

incorporated, which partly succeeded in making the river 
navigable from Mt. Clemens to Rochester; but its opera- 
tions were soon abandoned, apparently proving un- 
profitable. History of Oakland County (1876), S3. 

46. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 280; III, 568; History of Oakland 

County, 23. A stage Hne is said to have been begun be- 
tween Detroit and Pontiac as early as 1826. Detroit 
Gazette, April 4, 1826. 

47. History of Oakland County, 25; The Detroit Journal and 

Michigan Advertiser, May 18, 1831. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 207 

road from Pontiac to Detroit which began about 1830 
culminated in active beginnings in 1834.'*^ 

The way into Washtenaw County was by two trails, 
and the Huron River ; the first settlers took the Indian 
trail from Flat Rock, along that stream."*'-* At that 
time the river appears to have been of sufficient depth 
to permit of poling large flat-boats up to within four 
miles of the site of Ypsilanti, and this means of trans- 
porting goods, though slow, appears to have been much 
used even by later settlers.^ ^ The Chicago Trail was 
not more expeditious; in 1823 it is said to have taken 
four days for an ox team to cut its way through by 
that route from Detroit to Woodruff's Grove,^^ and an 
equal time was taken by a family traversing the same 
in 1826.^- The Detroit Gazette of May 9, 1826, adver- 
tises a "Stage to Washtenaw- — A stage will run here- 
after (or walk, if the roads are bad) between this place 
and Ann Arbor. ... It leaves Detroit three times 
a weeky The military road was surveyed in 1825, but 
actual work on it was slow until after 1830."'^^ In 1830 
a team of horses with a family and load of goods could 
make the trip from Detroit to Ann Arbor in three 
days,^^ and at the close of this period the road is said to 

48. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 407; History of Oakland County 

(1881), Z3; Territorial Laws, III, 844, 1287. The rail- 
road did not reach Pontiac until 1844. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
IX 273 

49. Ibid., \\,2>99. 

50. Ihid. , I, 334 ; IV, 403 ; XXXVIII, 365 ; History of Washtenaw 

County (1881), 1114. The Detroit Gazette for May 30, 
1826, mentions "two or three fine boats" plying between 
Detroit, Woodruff's Grove and Ann Arbor. 

51. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 404. 

52. History of Oakland County (1876), 222. 

53. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 125. 

54. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 250. 



208 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

have been a continuous causeway over mud until 
within a few miles of Ypsilanti.^^ The need for river 
transportation to supplement the Chicago Road is re- 
flected in the action of Ypsilanti citizens, who in 1833 
built by subscription a large pole-boat at a cost of 
about $1 ,300 f^ and it is apparently this boat the arrival 
of which at Detroit is noted by the Detroit Journal and 
Michigan Advertiser of May 21, 1834, and which car- 
ried one hundred and twenty -five pounds of flour for 
thirty-eight cents per barrel, while the usual price by 
land was from sixty-three to seventy-five cents." Still 
earlier, in the Detroit Gazette for April 25, 1826, is men- 
tioned the boat of Colonel Allen, of Ann Arbor, just 
arrived at Detroit, apparently a flat -bottomed boat 
built on the plan of the James River boats in Virginia, 
of which State Allen was a native ; the boat carried one 
hundred barrels of flour. The Territorial Road, author- 
ized in 1829 and surveyed in 1830, indicates a demand 
for a more direct route into the counties lying directly 
west of Washtenaw, and appears to have been due in 
part to the purpose of land owners in those counties 
to compete for immigration with the southern tier of 
counties.^^ 

The early settler who wish-ed to get to Lenawee 
County could choose, besides the Chicago Trail from 
Detroit, either of two others which led from the vicin- 
ity of Monroe. The main trail from Monroe branched 

55. Ibid., XXII, 529. 

56. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 125-126; Beakes, Past 

and Present of Washtenaw County, 595. 

57. See also the Detroit Courier for March 6, 1833. 

58. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 597-598; 

History of Washtenaw County (1881), 125-126. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 209 

at the Macon reservation, the southern branch fol- 
lowing the Raisin past Adrian to near Tecumseh, 
the northern the Macon River. ^^ If the point of de- 
parture were Monroe, the earliest settlers would take 
one or the other of these two routes f ' settlers who left 
from Detroit went either by way of Monroe along these 
trails or by the Chicago Trail.*^^ The time required 
varied with circumstances. In 1824 the party which 
founded Tecumseh required a week to make their way 
through from Monroe j*^^ in 1834 a settler walked in 
twenty-four hours from Adrian to Monroe, a distance 
of thirty miles. "^^ There was a slight improvement 
made in the southern route about 1827 by cutting a 
road through from Blissfield to Petersborough.^^ The 
northern trail was the line, approximately, over which 
the La Plaisance Bay Road was surveyed in 1832. 
The position of the Chicago Road through Lenawee 
County is reflected in a description (1834) by a pioneer, 
who represents it as "stretching itself by devious and 
irregular windings east and west like a huge serpent 
lazily pursuing its onward course, utterly unconcerned 



59. Bureau of American Ethnology, 18th Annual Report, plate 

CXXXVIII. 

60. Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 407; Historical and Biographical 

Record of Lenawee County, I, 63, 64; II, 9, 24; Hogaboam, 
The Bean Creek Valley, 13. 

61. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 40; 

II, 31; Wing, History of Monroe Covmty, 149. Both the 
Risdon map (1825) and the Farmer map (1826) show a 
road running from the Chicago Road from a point a little 
west of Ypsilanti to Tecumseh. 

62. Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 407. 

63. Ibid., XVII, 512. However, it does not appear that these 

trips were made by the same trails. 

64. Combination Atlas Map of Lenawee County, 15. 

27 



210 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

as to its destination."*^^ Active preparations for the 
construction of a railroad from Adrian to Port Law- 
rence (Toledo) began in 1833.'^'^ 

The interrelations of transportation improvement 
with the general physical influences of settlement in 
this section are illustrated by the manner in which the 
frontier was extended. In determining the location of 
the first settlements, which were to be points of de- 
parture for settlement in each county, no causes were 
more influential than the relative position of river and 
trail. The general directions in which settlement 
spread out from these centers, and the rate of its move- 
ment, varied somewhat in different parts of the sec- 
tion, but in general the movement of the frontier was 
westward, with a northwest and southwest trend re- 
spectively at the two extremities. Although settle- 
ment received an earlier start at the north, the rate of 
frontier extension was more rapid at the south, partly 
because it began about the time of the rapid increase 
of immigration to the Territory as a whole. In all of 
the counties the frontier reached the western boundary 
of the section at about the same time, and at those 
points which were most easily reached — near the great 
western trails. '^^ 

Southwest was the direction in which the frontier ex- 
tended the most rapidly in Oakland up to the time 
when the first settlements were made in Washtenaw 
and Lenawee. By 1825 all of the townships in the 

65. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, II, 21. 

66. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 231. 

67. History of Oakland County (1876), 106, 193 ; History of Wash- 

tenaw County (1881), 752, 1296; Hist, and Biog. Rec. of 
Lenawee County, II, 9, 22, 39. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 211 

two southern tiers in Oakland, excepting the western- 
most, had received their first settlers. ^^ A few settle- 
ments had by that time been made in Waterford 
Township west of Pontiac, and a few north of the 
Clinton River in the eastern part of the county; also 
land had been purchased in all of the townships east of 
a northeast -to-southwest*^^ diagonal line drawn through 
the center of the county, comprising fifteen of its thirty- 
six surveyed townships. For five years following 1825 
there was a pause in the extension of the frontier. In 
this interval land had been purchased in all of the re- 
maining townships except Brandon in the extreme 
north and Highland and Rose in the extreme west. 
The time which elapsed between the dates of first pur- 
chase and first settlement in the north-central and 
northeastern townships varied from four to eight years ; 
but it was shorter in the northwest, where though the 
buying began from three to seven years later, the first 
settlements followed the first ptirchases within a year. 
In the southern tier of townships settlement generally 
began within two years after the first purchase, and in 
the central townships within a year. By 1830 only 
seven townships had not yet received their first set- 
tlers, all in the extreme north and west except White 
Lake;'*^ Brandon and Rose had no settlers tmtil 1835.'^^ 
The dominating influence which checked the exten- 
sion of the frontier, especially in the period before 

68. History of Oakland County (1876), 106, 158, 166, 221, 231, 

237, 267, 285, 312, 320. 

69. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 565-570. 

70. History of Oakland County (1876), 105, 106, 124, 153, 175, 

183, 193, 201, 221, 243, 261, 250, 275. 

71. Ibid., 243, 261. 



212 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

1830, was desire to be near the older settlements. The 
townships first settled were those bordering on the 
townships of Pontiac and Avon, and the first settle- 
ments made above the Clinton were in the very southern 
parts, near Pontiac and Rochester, and made from six to 
nine years afterward.^- Though Waterford, which was 
just west of Pontiac, was first settled in 1819 the town- 
vships adjoining it north and west had no settlers for a 
decade. ^^ The position of the first land purchases re- 
flect the same desire. In the south and southwest the 
settlements came apparently from the same impulse 
which brought immigration to the interior and northern 
parts of Wayne County upon which they bordered ; but 
the impulse seems to have spent itself in the filling-in 
process before settlers reached the extreme southwest. 
There seem to have been no unfavorable physical con- 
trasts between the southwestern townships and their 
eastern neighbors sufficient to warrant the difference of 
from five to seven years in the dates of settlement;'^'* 
the contrasts of environment were greater in the town- 
ships north and west of Waterford. '^^ In White Lake 
Township directly west of Waterford there was little 
water power, and much swamp and inferior soil. The 
availability of land near the older settlements, appears 
sufficient reason for the pause in the extension of the 
frontier from 1825 to 1830. 

Th-e strength of the impulse of 1830 extended settle- 
ment during that and the following year into the 
farthest corners of the county. Speculation had an 

72. Ihid., 70, 130. 

73. Ihid., 105, 175, 183. 

74. Ihid., 158, 214, 221, 230. 

75. Ihid., 183, 207, 274, 299. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 213 

important function in helping to determine its rate 
and direction, tending to hasten its extension by 
making less available at Government prices the 
land near the older settlements. Speculation called 
the attention of intending settlers to places where 
speculators were taking up new land. It has been 
noted that the buying of land was usually much 
in advance of settlement, and the degree of dis- 
crepancy in time may in general be taken as a fair 
index to the amount of speculation. Judging by this 
rule, speculators preferred the northeastern part of the 
county to the northwestern, apparently because nearer 
to the older settlements , but settlement reached both of 
the northern comers of Oakland County at about the 
same time. An aid to the extension of settlement to 
the northwest was the Saginaw Trail, over which the 
Government was building a road in the early thirties. 
The Detroit Jotirnal and Michiga?i Advertiser of May 
18, 1831, says, "The turnpike from Detroit to Saginaw 
passes through the most populous part of the county. 
. This road is intersected in every direction by 
roads accommodating the settlements in different parts 
of the county." It appears to have been the chief axis 
of settlement. The effect of very unfavorable condi- 
tions of surface, soil, timber distribution, and of water 
power, are seen in the backwardness of three of the 
northwestern townships : Brandon was broken, densely 
forested and had mediocre water power ;^^ Highland 
and Rose, though more open, were high and hilly with 
only mediocre soil and water power, '^^ and combined 

76. Ibid., 152. 

77. Ibid., 201, 261. 



214 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

with these defects was their distance from the older 
centers of settlement. 

The frontier in Washtenaw County included by 1824 
settlements in seven surveyed townships: Webster 
and Northfield in the north J ^ Saline and York in the 
south, '^^ and Ann Arbor, Superior and Pittsfield in the 
middle tiers. ^° In 1825 settlements were made at the 
north in the townships of Salem and Dexter, ^^ also in 
Scio, Lima and Lodi west and southwest of Ann 
Arbor. ^" From 1825 to 1829 no new settlements were 
made, but in the latter year Augusta and Bridgewater, 
at the south, received their first settlers. In 1830-31 
the townships of Sylvan and Sharon, in the extreme 
western part of the county, were first settled. ^^ Man- 
chester, in the extreme southwest, received no settlers 
until 1832,^^ and Lyndon, in the extreme northwest, had 
none until 1834.^^ 

These facts point to four specific determinants in the 
early extension of the Washtenaw^ frontier — the Huron 
and Saline rivers, and the Chicago and Washtenaw 
trails. From 1825 to 1829 they ceased to extend the 
frontier, a period coincident with that observed in 
Oakland County; but they were undoubtedly active 
in filling in population about the older settlements. At 
the beginning of this pause settlements had already 
extended over about three-fourths of the county, an 



78. 


History of Washtenaw County (1881), 636, 668 


79. 


Ibid., 669, 1378. 


80. 


Ibid., 873, 1066, 1254. 


81. 


Ibid., 599, 717. 


82. 


Ibid., 805, 820, 1277. 


83. 


Ibid., 752, 1296. 


84. 


Ibid., 1315. 


85. 


Ibid., 739. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 215 

area including all but one surveyed township in the 
three eastern ranges and lapping over upon the north 
end of the fourth range. The exception to settlement 
in the eastern ranges was the township of Augusta, in 
the extreme southeast, neglected probably because of 
an unfavorable environment; the surface was low, and 
over the stiff clay soil marshes alternated with heavily 
timbered land.^*^ But into Augusta and Bridgewater 
the growth of population along the Chicago Road 
pushed the frontier in 1829; and closely following in 
1830-31, the first settlements in Sylvan and Sharon 
townships reflect the influence of the recently surveyed 
road over the Washtenaw Trail. Below the latter in 
the extreme southwestern township of Manchester, the 
water power on the Raisin was the immediate motive 
of settlement. Above them in the extreme northwest, 
the township of Lyndon was the last to be favored; 
but this does not appear to have been due to defects 
in its physical environment;^^ while it had many lakes 
and ponds the approaches to them were comparatively 
clear, and though there were some tamarack swamps, 
it contained no extensive swamp areas like those in 
Augusta, Pittsfield and Sylvan townships. Very favor- 
able to its settlement was the soil of sandy loam, also 
the numerous hickory and oak openings; but it lacked 
good water power, and this in combination with the 
natural engrossment of interest in the lands near the 
older settlements along the Huron River and the Terri- 

86. Ibid., 148, 1439; Michigan Geological Survey, Annual Re- 

port (1907), map in pocket; Ann Arbor Folio, plate 
"Topography." 

87. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 148. 



216 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

torial and Chicago roads was sufficient to delay its 
settlement. 

The only settlement in Lenawee County in 1824 was 
Tecumseh. From 1825 to 1828 all the east-central 
townships of Lenawee received their first settlers, ^^ and 
by 1830 the same could be said of all in the county 
except those in the extreme west and south. With 
the exception of Riga, which was first settled in 1836,^^ 
all of the townships contained settlers by 1834.^° 

In this county, the heavy forests at the south, the 
Raisin River, the Chicago Road, and Bean Creek, were 
the strongest physical factors in determining the posi- 
tion of the early settlements. From Tecumseh and 
Adrian, on the line of the Raisin, the frontier spread 
out to the east, west and south, ^^ but denseness of 
forest at the south and east caused slow movement in 
those directions. '■'■' The line of the Chicago Road and 
that of the Indian trail from Ohio cast of Bean Cieek 
tended to carry the earliest settlers to the more open 
country in the north ;^^ the later impulse to immi- 
gration which was strongly felt about 1833 carried the 
frontier to the west and south in that and the following 
years. 

88. Hisi. and Biog. Record of Lenawee County, II, 48, 54; Mick. 

Hiit. Colls., I, 230; II, 373; Comb. Atlas Map of Lenawee 
County, 15. 

89. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 374. The old maps represent Riga as 

covered with swamps. Combination Atlas Map of Lena- 
wee County, 16. 

90. H. B. R., II, 9, 22, 35, 39; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 372, 374. 

Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 21, 23, 24, 39; Comb. 
Atlas Map, 12, 16. 

91. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 372, 374; H. B. R., I, 65; II, 9, 22, 49. 

Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 22, 23, 25, 32, 40, 51. 

92. Combination Atlas Map, 16. 

93. Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 21. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 217 

It has been observed that while the frontier was 
extending, there was intensive as well as extensive 
growth, and that both were subject to the same gen- 
eral controlling factors; in general, the rate and direc- 
tion of frontier extension was a measure of areal 
growth. 

In 1820 Oakland Cotmty had a population of three 
hundred and thirty people, ^^ and the position of the 
frontier indicates that. the bulk of the people were near 
the two oldest colonies. In the year of the opening of 
the Erie Canal (1825) the sheriff's assessment showed 
that within the present boundaries of the county there 
were two hundred and eighty-two houses, forty-seven 
barns and two thousand six hundred and twenty-one 
acres of improved land.'-*^ Within one year, according 
to a census taken by assessors and reported in the 
Michigan Herald for June 7, 1826, the rapid settlement 
of the county had brought the number of dwelHngs up 
to three hundred and forty-one and the number of 
acres of improved land to four thousand and sixty- 
nine, while the population numbered something over 
two thousand. In 1827 the population seemed large 
enough to warrant the division of the county into five 
townships, and the evidence drawn from the number, 
size and position of these townships supplements that 
drawn from the position of the frontier line in showing 
that the population was distributed mainly in the 
southeast.^'' In 1830 the settlers of the county num- 

"9I U. S. Census (1820), 41. 

95. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 571. The present boundaries of 

Oakland County were established in 1822. Territorial 
Laws, I, 332. 

96. Territorial Laws, II, 477. 



218 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

bered 4911,^^ and a new township (Southfield) was 
created in the southeast — the first in the county to 
have the small area of a Government township, ^^ im- 
plying a considerable density of population. Frontier 
extension reflects rapid growth in 1830-31. The De- 
troit Journal and Michigan Advertiser ior May 18, 1831, 
records an estimation of from eight hundred to a thou- 
sand people who arrived in the county since the taking 
of the census of 1830. The same paper credits the 
county with thirteen stores, eight good flouring mills 
favorably situated to accommodate the settlers, about 
twenty first rate sawmills, and four or five carding 
and fulling mills equipped with looms for weaving; all 
this indicates enterprising industrial growth. There 
were no new townships until 1833, when six were 
created in that and the year following, ^^ all of them 
excepting Waterford in the two southern tiers. The 
order of their formation reflects the call for town- 
ship government, as the people moved westward. In 
the westernmost townships, Lyon and Milford, the 
population was probably sparse, since they received 
their first settlers within three years of the time of their 
creation. ^"^^ In the four years from 1830 to 1834 the 
population of the county almost trebled, reaching in 
the latter year 13,844.^°^ In 1835-36, years of heavy 



97. U. S. Censtis (1830), 153. 

98. Territorial Laws, II, 818, '!ii?>. 

99. Ibid., Ill, 1124. 1275, 1839. 

100. Territorial Laws, III, 1275. In the division of Farm- 

ington Township, the fact that it was the western rath- 
er than the eastern portion of it that was made equal 
to a surveyed township (Lyon), seems deceptive as an 
indication of relative density of population. 

101. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 219 

land speculation and rapid settlement, township organi- 
zation advanced rapidly northward beyond the center 
of the county, ^°" and by 1837 the entire county ex- 
cepting its northwest corner was divided into a checker- 
board of six-mile squares. ^°'' According to the census 
of 1837 the county contained 20,176 people, of whom 
only about one -fourth had settled beyond a diagonal 
line from northeast to southwest. ^°^ The other diagonal, 
approximately the line of the Saginaw Turnpike, divided 
the population somewhat equally; settlers favored de- 
cidedly, however, the eastern side, which contained the 
first centers of settlement, at Pontiac and Rochester. 
The only township which exceeded the population of 
Pontiac was Farmington, about the middle of the 
southern tier, each having about seventeen hundred 
people. Only a half dozen townships, in the immediate 
vicinity of these, exceeded one thousand, and the 
northwestern townships fell considerably below five 
hundred. 

There was no marked tendency in Oakland County 
toward centralization in this period, the only promising 
village centers being the settlements on the Clinton 
River at Pontiac, Auburn, and Rochester. The Pon- 
tiac Company was the power back of all the public 
improvements at Pontiac. It was at once made the 
county seat, and a description of its advantages and of 
the surrounding country appeared in the Detroit 
Gazette almost before a dwelling had been built there. ^'^^ 

102. Territorial Laws, III, 1368, 1369, 1404, 1420; Session Laivs 

(1835-36), 68, 69. 

103. Session Laws (1837), 36, 40, 43. 

104. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. 

105. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 26, 1819. See also the same for Feb. 

15, 1822. 



220 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Immigration was vigorously solicited, and Pontiac soon 
became an objective point for settlers from the eastern 
states. A letter from the western part of New York 
in 1820 to one of the editors of the Detroit Gazette 
says, "Our Emigrating Company is rapidly gaining 
recruits; and in the Spring we shall move in a body 
for Pontiac. "^^"^ Though it was still regarded by many 
in 1821 as a "paper town," the confidence of set- 
tlers and prospectors was shown by the recent sale 
of more than fifty village lots at from $20 to $70 
apiece. ^°'^ The village in that year contained appar- 
ently not more than a half dozen dwellings, ^°^ but a 
substantial improvement had been made by the erec- 
tion of a sawmill and gristmill. ^°^ The importance 
of this for the village and for the settlement of 
the county is reflected in a statement made by the 
Detroit Gazette of February 2, 1821, that within a week 
recently sixty-three sleighs, each loaded with from 
thirty to forty-eight bushels of grain, had arrived at 
the Pontiac mill, and all from a distance of more than 
twenty-five miles. The same paper in an editorial for 
December 13, 1825, mentions as "a singular fact and 
entirely new in this territory," that a wagon load of 
flour arrived in Detroit the week before from the in- 
terior, made at Col. Mack's mills in Pontiac, and it 
was understood that there were several hundred barrels 
there. It was further stated that this was the first 



106. Detroit Gazette. Feb. 11, 1820. 

107. Ibid.. July 20, 1821. It also had to contend with willful 

misrepresentations. See, for example, the Detroit Ga- 
zette, Aug. 30, 1822. 

108. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 574. 

109. Ibid., 11, 471. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 221 

season in which the farmers of Oakland County had 
been able to raise graih enough to supply themselves 
and the new settlers. By 1830 the growth of the sup- 
porting agricultural interests is indicated by the forma- 
tion of a county agricultural society. ^^" The prevalence 
of wolves made sheep-raising precarious, but a woolen 
mill is said to have been "in full operation" in Pontiac 
in 1825.^^^ The outlook for a surplus of produce 
started an agitation about 1830 for a railroad from 
Pontiac to Detroit. It is said that by 1830 the reputa- 
tion of Pontiac as an industrial and trade center was 
well established among business men in the eastern 
states. In its issue of April 21, 1830, the Northwestern 
Journal credits the village with "three merchant trad- 
ers," a sawmill, a flourmill, a woolen mill, an ashery, 
seventy-five buildings, and two hundred and fifty in- 
habitants. The new impulse to its settlement that 
came about 1830 is signalized by the establishment of 
a weekly newspaper, the Oakland Chronicle, which how- 
ever was soon moved to Detroit.^^- An academy was 
chartered in 1833,^^^ and a branch of the University 
is mentioned by Blois. The settlement of the village 

1 10. History of Oakland County (1876) , ZZ . 

111. Detroit Gazette, July 26, 1825. It was advertised to manu- 

facture cloth three-fourths of a yard wide at 62 1 cents 
per yard. 

112. The paper ran for about a year, and its files, if they could be 

found, would give probably the best account of activities 
in the village and county in 1830-31; see Detroit Jovirnal 
and Michigan Advertiser, April 27, 1831. The first num- 
ber of the Oakland Chronicle is said to have appeared 
May 31, 1830, its editor having been connected with the 
Western Emigrant at Ann Arbor. See Northwestern 
Journal of June 2, 1830. 

113. History oj Oakland County (1876), 92. 



222 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

was very rapid from 1835 to 1837. It was incorporated 
in 1837, when Blois estimates the population at about 
one thousand souls. ^^^ 

The site of the village of Rochester, about ten miles 
east of Pontiac where the Clinton River receives Paint 
Creek, was in the vicinity of excellent water power, 
which explains its early growth. Within eight years 
after its settlement four mills had been built near the 
site on the Clinton and tributary streams — shown on 
Risdon's map (1825). The Detroit Gazette of April 10, 
1827, advertised a sale of village lots, and population in- 
creased during the following decade sufficiently to 
require four stores to supply the needs of trade. -^^^ 

About half way between Rochester and Pontiac a 
village was laid out at Auburn, in 1826, which early 
attracted a number of well-to-do settlers and became a 
vigorous rival. ^^^ Like Rochester and Pontiac, it was 
located on a good power site, and like them also it re- 
ceived its first vigorous impulse from the new spirit of 
immigration which followed the opening of the Erie 

114. Ibid., 73, 117; Blois, Gazetteer, 344. The progress of settle- 

ment in these latter years was not on a sound basis, as 
illustrated by the shrinking of credit and hard times when 
the financial crash of 1837 came. History of Oaf?land 
County, 34, 36, 84. 

115. Blois, Gazetteer, 352. Pontiac had fourteen stores, Ibid., 

344. The populations of the respective townships were 
approximately equal, but Pontiac 's trade • prol^ably 
reached a much wider area than that of Rochester. 

116. One of the chief promoters of the village was a native of 

Middlebury, New York (Milton Hyde). The village was 
named from Auburn, New' York. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXVIII, 344-345. In the year ending March 31, 1827, 
the net receipt of postage at Pontiac was $79.86, at 
Auburn $8.46, while Rochester is not mentioned. Ameri- 
can State Papers, Post Office, 179-180. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 223 

Canal. The editor of the Detroit Gazette speaks of it 
in 1826 as the site of Smith's mills, "a business-like little 
place, where there is erected an excellent flourmill and 
sawmill."^" Apparently, as in many other places, the 
mills preceded and attracted the promoters of the vil- 
lage. Its aspiration to be the chief village of the 
county was eclipsed by the choice of Pontiac as the 
terminal of the railroad,^' ^ and in 1837 it is said to have 
been nearly destroyed by fire.^^^ Its great expecta- 
tions, added to its signal failure, gave it first rank 
among the "paper towns" of the county. 

Other village centers of farming population were 
platted in 1835 and 1836 as speculations, many of 
which, like Auburn, were reduced by the succeeding 
hard times to the fate of "paper towns." One of the 
earliest points on the Saginaw Trail iTientioned in pio- 
neer reminiscences was Royal Oak, which appears to 
have had little to recommend it for a village site ex- 
cepting its position on the trail, but was later threaded 
by the road and the railroad and became the center of 
a considerable population. It was platted by the rail- 
road company in 1836, and a steam sawmill was put 
in operation under the same auspices. ^-° Under the 
impulse of the anticipated railroad, Birmingham was 
platted in the same year, and owed its early growth to 
being for many years the railroad terminal. ^-^ In 1837 
it was the second place in the county in point of busi- 

117. Detroit G"a2^«^, May 23, 1826. 

118. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 344. 

119. Detroit Daily Advertiser, Feb. 4, 1837. Blois credits it with 

two stores in 1838. Gazetteer of Michigan, 249. 

120. History of Oakland County (1876), 239. 

121. 1840-44. Ibid., 323. 



224 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ness, having entirely eclipsed its neighbor, which began 
the same year only two miles away.^^^ The explana- 
tion seems to lie in the better soil, which attracted a 
larger farming population, and the advantages of water 
power on one of the head branches of the Rouge. An- 
other village of this period deserving mention is 
Farmington, directly west of Royal Oak and Birming- 
ham in the southern part of the county on a branch of 
the Rouge, the original nucleus of which was a colony 
of Quakers. ^"^ It appears to have had at the end of this 
period a number of mills, a couple of stores and about 
a score of families. ^^'^ In the southwestern part of the 
county, similarly situated on mill sites, were the vil- 
lages of Kensington^ ^^ and Milford,^-*^ the former of 
which gained an unsavory reputation in the days of 
'Svild-cat" banking.^" 

The first newspaper mention of settlement in Wash- 
tenaw County was in connection with the location of 
the county seat in 1824, when the Detroit Gazette ob- 
served that "emigration is taking a direction that 
way."^^^ In the issue of July, 30, 1824, the same paper 
notes, that whereas on the fourth of July in the year 
previous there were but nine persons in the county, in 
1824 "the anniversary of Independence was celebrated 
by 79 persons — at the upper settlement about 50 at- 

122. Blois, Gazetteer, 255, 354. 

123. See articles in the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser 

for May 25, 1831, July 13, 1831, and Mav 25, 1832. 

124. Blois, Gazetteer, 285. 

125. Ibid., 307. 

126. Ibid., 325; History of Oakland County (1876), 223.^ 

127. See also the villages of Franklin, Morris' Mills, Niles and 

Stony Creek, in Blois, Gazetteer, 288, 328, 332, 365, 

128. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 1, 1824. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 225 

tended;" adding, "The increase of population in this 
county has been about as rapid as that of Oakland dtir- 
ing the two first years after the settlement commenced." 
Early in 1824 emigrants could have had before them a 
very favorable description of the county in the report 
of the commissioners appointed to locate the county 
seat, which was addressed to Governor Cass and pub- 
Hshed in the Detroit Gazette}-^ The year 1827 wit- 
nessed formal steps to encourage immigration, in the 
organization of the ' 'Washtenaw County Society for the 
Information of Emigrants. "^^° 

The growth of population in the county for the 
period from 1827 is reflected in the census figures and 
in the votes cast at different times for delegates to 
Congress. The votes at the Territorial election in the 
year 1827 and in every second year thereafter to 1835 
increase almost in arithmetical progression, ^^^ but the 
figures probably represent only approximately the 
actual increase. The United States census shows for 
the period 1824 to 1830 a population of 4,042,1^2 



129. Detroit Gazette, March 26, 1824. The land was declared as 

good as any yet explored ; the Huron River was navigable 
and abounded in millsites; springs of pure water were 
numerous; timbered land, openings and prairies would 
accommodate all varieties of immigrants. It is interest- 
ing that the first signature to the report was that of 
Austin E. Wing, who became a partner in the founding 
of Tecumseh in Lenawee County instead of operating in 
Washtenaw. 

130. Detroit Gazette, March 20, 1827. It was organized at a 

meeting held at Ahll Creek (Dexter), and the newspaper 
notice is signed by R. Grossman and S. W. Dexter. 

131. 244, 444, 648, 952, and in 1835, 1075; History of Washtenaw 

County (1881), 250-251. 

132. U. S. Census (1830). 153. 

29 



226 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

while the Territorial census for 1834 gives 14,920,^^^ 
An important hint as to the distribution of the early- 
population of the county is contained in an act of the 
Territorial legislature in 1827, which divided the 
county into three townships ;^^^ in names and posi- 
tions are reflected the four main centers of population : 
Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline and Dexter. In the sub- 
division of these townships the population is seen reach- 
ing out in 1828 to the north of Ypsilanti, ^^^^ in 1829 to 
the south of Ann Arbor, "'^ in 1832 to the north of Ann 
Arbor, ^" in 1833 to the west and northwest of Ann 
Arbor,^^^ and in 1834 to the farthest western and south- 
western parts of the county.^^^ The backwardness of the 
western and southern corners of the county is suggested 
by the absence of independent townships. Here were sit- 
uated the last townships to be organized.^''*' By 1837 the 
entire area of the county had been divided like Oak- 
land into townships six miles square. The population 
had increased to over twenty thousand. ^''^ Its distribu- 
tion, combined with the evidence from township organ- 
ization, gives the same general impression as that al- 
ready noted in the advance of the frontier, and sug- 
gests the forces already mentioned as governing the 
settlement of the county. The most populous town- 
ships lay along the Chicago and Territorial roads, ex- 



133. 


Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 


134. 


Territorial Laws, II, 479. 


135. 


Ihid., 11, 687. 


136. 


Ihid., II, 712. 


137. 


lUd., Ill, 925. 


138. 


Ihid., Ill, 996. 


139. 


Ihid., Ill, 1276. 


140. 


Ihid., Ill, 1404; Session Laws (1835-36), 68; Ihid. (1837), 41 


141. 


21,817. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 73. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 227 

cepting Salem in the northeastern corner. Ann Arbor 
was approximately the center of population. The drift 
of settlement was quite evenly westward. The popula- 
tions of the northern and southern tiers of townships 
were as six to five, while those of the eastern and western 
ranges were as seven to three. 

The promising village centers in Washtenaw County 
were Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Saline, Dexter and Man- 
chester. Besides having excellent farming country in 
the vicinity, the foundations of the growth of Ypsilanti 
were its water power, comparative nearness to De- 
troit, and its position at the junction of the Huron 
with the main thoroughfare along which settlers trav- 
eled from Detroit to southwestern Michigan and be- 
yond. Its convenience as a resting place for travelers 
was early seen; among others who became successful 
inn-keepers was Benjamin Woodruff, who moved up 
from Woodruff's Grove^^^ when the failure of that 
settlement to be included on the Chicago Road de- 
stroyed it.^^^ 

Ypsilanti is said to have received its first permanent 
settler from Romulus, Seneca County, New York;^^'* 

142. On Risdon's map (1825) Woodruff's Grove looks more prom- 

ising than Pontiac, as indicated by six dots to Pontiac's 
five. For its first settlement and early fate see Beakes, 
Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 548. The account 
is said to be based upon that of a person who lived in the 
home of one of the settlers near the date of settlement. 

143. The effect of the Chicago Road appears to be reflected in 

the postoffice receipts at the two places for 1827 and 
1828: in 1827 at Woodruff's Grove, $27.67, at Ypsilanti, 
$8.93; in 1828 at the former, $23.36, at the latter, $22.95. 
American State Papers, Post Office, 180, 210 

144. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 564. John 

Stewart, who bought the north French claim. 



228 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

and among the first owners of the village plat (1825) 
was the Virginian and friend of Jefferson, Judge Wood- 
ward of Detroit, whose classical sympathies above 
ment'oned are again reflected in the naming of Ypsi- 
lanti for the hero of the Greek war for independence. ^^^ 
The prevalent faith in the prospects of the village is 
illustrated by an entry in a settler's diary for 1827, that 
"Nature and art have combined to make it a place for 
business.""*^ Boats of twenty tons burden plied between 
the landing four miles below, and Lake Erie; property 
was valued "very high;" the author of the diary bought 
two village lots (half an acre) for $100. By 1830 the 
population of the village reached two hundred and 
forty. ^''^ It is said to have doubled by 1834,^^^ and 
Blois (1838) credits it with one thousand people. ^^^ 
Illustrative of frontier conditions, it is recorded by 
Harriet Martineau in 1836 that there was as yet no 
bridge at the village for foot passengers, vehicles hav- 
ing to go a mile down the river to the ferry, but a 
bridge was being built. ^^° 

Ann Arbor was incorporated a year later than Ypsi- 
lanti, (1833), but its settlement was on the whole 



145. Ibid., 565. For the early development of Ypsilanti from 

1825 to 1837 the same work gives a well digested and 
apparently accurate account in pages 732-737. 

146. The diary of Mark Norris, cited in History of Washtenaw 

County (1881), 1114. 

147. The Northwestern Journal, August 25, 1830, quoting the 

U. S. Census schedules. 

148. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 337. 

149. Blois, Gazetteer, 383. 

150. Society in America, I, 319. The Northwestern Journal of 

Oct. 27, 1830, records that a Working Men's Society was 
organized, a local illustration of the wide-reaching move- 
ment of the time for labor organization. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 229 

more rapid. Being somewhat removed from the Chi- 
cago Road it missed the early advertisement which 
position on that thoroughfare gave to its rival. This 
was partly offset by its position on the Territorial Road 
nearer the center of the county, and by the ac- 
quisition of the county seat in the very year it received 
its first settlers (1824).^^^ This made it a center of at- 
traction, as the place where justice was administered 
and as headquarters for "landlookers." The author of 
the diary above qtioted stayed at Ann Arbor while 
"looking" land in the county, but he was more im- 
pressed with Ypsilanti as a place of business. Ann 
Arbor seemed to him rather a "place for lounging and 
gossip." The three or four inns^^^ in 1827 appear to 
be evidence of a considerable transient population ;^^^ 
the resident population is said to have been housed in 
some twenty or thirty dwellings. ^^* 

Ann Arbor's advantages of water power and sur- 
rounding agricultural lands were fully equal to those 
at Ypsilanti, and were early advertised by the pro- 
prietors of the village plat. The water power at the 
mouth of "Allen's Creek" is mentioned in the report of 
the commissioners who located the county seat,^^^ and 

151. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 335. 

152. Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 556; Mich. 

Hist. Colls., I, 334. 

153. The postoffice receipts for the year ending March 31, 1827, 

were at Ann Arbor $151.47, at Ypsilanti $8.93. American 
State Papers, Post Office, 179, 180. 

154. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 33A. 

155. Detroit Gazette, March 26, 1824. The Northwestern Journal 

(Detroit) for May 5, 1830, points out Ann Arbor as an 
"especially fine place for capital to invest in a flouring 
mill." See also Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw 
County, 627-629, for power development on the Huron 
River. 



230 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

a mill is indicated there on Risdon's map. In the De- 
troit Gazette for June 4, 1824, a public notice signed by 
John Allen and Elisha W. Rumsey as proprietors of 
the village, invites the attention of emigrants to Ann 
Arbor, "particularly of Mechanics and Artisans." 
By 1830 the population of the village had reached 
three hundred and fifty. Hoffman, visiting the vil- 
lage late in 1833, estimated its population at seven or 
eight hundred, ^^"^ and between that time and the close of 
the period it appears to have more than doubled, reach- 
ing about two thousand.^" 

The impulse to the settlement of the village and 
county at the beginning of the thirties is illustrated by 
the choice of Ann Arbor for the first newspaper venture, 
which unlike that in Oakland County proved success- 
ful, and did much to advertise the advantages of the 
village to settlers. It was first known as TJie Western 
Emigrant,^^^ and appears to be the one mentioned by 
Harriet Martineau in an interesting comment in 1836: 
"At Ypsilanti," she says, "I picked up an Ann Arbor 
newspaper. It was badly printed; but its contents 
were pretty good; and it could happen nowhere out of 
America, that so raw a settlement as that at Ann 

156. The Northwestern Journal of August 25, 1830, quoting from 

the schedules of the census. Hoffmdn, A Winter in the 
West, I, 156-157. As elsewhere stated, he entered the 
county by way of Monroe and Tecumseh. 

157. Blois, Gazetteer, 249. The settlement of Ann Arbor from 

1824 to 1837 is well sketched by Beakes, in Past and 
Present of Washtenaw County, 700-702. 

158. The first number appeared Oct. 18, 1829. The name was 

changed several times. The Ann Arbor Argus, first 
issued February 5, 1835, may have been the paper re- 
ferred to by Haniet Martineau. See Beakes, Past and 
Present of Washtenaw County, 616-619. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 231 

Arbor, where there is difficulty in procuring decent 
accommodations, should have a newspaper. "^^^ Con- 
ditions improved much within the next five years, 
according to Lansing Swan, who in 1841 found "an 
excellent hotel," having come up from Ypsilanti, "not 
liking our quarters to stay over the Sabbath." In his 
Journal he says,^'''° "Ann Arbor is a delightful place of 
about two or three thousand inhabitants and is in 
every respect a much neater and more thriving place 
than any of its size in our own state [New York]. 
There are five churches and a state university now 
building on a scale of magnificence far beyond Union 
College at Schenectady, besides many other very fine 
public and private buildings.^" I do not wonder that 
people are made crazy by coming to Michigan if what 
I have seen is a specimen of the country." 

The site of Saline is said to have been chosen (1824), 
by the surveyor of the Chicago Road, for a city; but 
the tradition does nor seem consistent with the delay 
of eight years before platting a village. ^"^^ Its ad- 

159. Martineau, Society in America, I, 319. She apparently did 

not visit Ann Arbor. The first newspaper at Ypsilanti 
appears to have been the Ypsilanti Republican, in 1837. 
Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw County, 624. 

160. Swan, Journal of a Tour to Michigan. The closing state- 

ment refers to his observations of the Territory as a 
whole, including the settlements along the Territorial and 
Chicago roads. 

161. In 1832 the academy had an attendence of one hundred 

students, and its principal of that year suggests that this 
institution marked the beginning of that reputation for 
school privileges which later secured for the city the 
State University. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 400. See also 
McLaughlin, Higher Education in Michigan, 39. 

162. History of Washtenaiv County (1881), 1378; Beakes, Past and 

Present of Washtenaw County, 576. 



232 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

vantages were promising: position on the Chicago 
Road, power from the Sahne River, fertile openings, and 
plentiful timber; it was also near an extensive deer- 
lick and salt spring, and had early been favored as 
the site of an Indian village. ^"^^ The Detroit Gazette for 
December 13, 1825, annomices that a sawmill will be 
built soon by Risdon near the salt springs on the Chi- 
cago Road. Blois mentions a flourmill and sawmill 
near the village, and the presence of three stores in 
1837 indicates that village life was beginning j^^'* its 
growth was restrained by that of Ypsilanti and Ann 
Arbor above, and by Tecumseh and Adrian on the 
south. 

Dexter and Manchester were quite as rudimentary 
as Saline. Six years elapsed between the platting of 
Dexter and the purchase of the site by Samuel W. 
Dexter^'^^ in 1824, although this site, "Mill Creek," 
was one of the earliest centers of settlement to receive 
newspaper mention. Dexter was located on a "pla- 
teau" near the junction of Mill Creek with the Huron, 
water power being the principal motive to settlement. 
Its first actual settlers are said to have come from 
Ann Arbor. In 1830, the year in which the village was 
platted, its distinction from the surrounding country 
consisted in a small cluster of log dwellings, a grist 
mill, a sawmill, a store, and an inn, apparently the 
only one existing at that time west of Ann Arbor. ^'^^ 

163. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1369, 1373. On the 

Risdon map (1825) salt springs are shown at Saline on 
the Chicago Road. 

164. Blois, Gazetteer, 357. 

165. For Samuel W. Dexter and his land speculations, see Beakes, 

Past and Present oj Washtenaw County, 567, 680. 

166. History cf Washtenaw County (1881), 828-829. 




SOUTHEASTERN .MRHICAN IX ISiT, 

{Mich. Hist. Coll.'!., XXXVUI, 634) 

This map was drawn by Orange Risdon of Detroit, surveyor of the Chicago Road. The 
j,pale is four miles to an inch. An original copy is in the office of the Historical Commission 
j^f Lansing. See pp. 9.5-243. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 233 

Though it had five stores in 1838 its settlement was 
apparently not much, if any, in advance of that at 
Saline, being, as there, overshadowed by the larger vil- 
lages. ^''^ 

Manchester was located on the Raisin, at a point 
where that river crossed one of the largest burr- 
oak plains of the county. ^*^^ In 1832 an inn and a 
sawmill were built there by a prominent settler of 
Ypsilanti, and from that time it began to be a nticleus 
of settlement. By 1834 enough settlers had gathered 
in the neighborhood to warrant the building of a 
schoolhouse.^*^^ Blois does not mention the village. 

In Lenawee County, population increased slowly be- 
fore 1830. According to General Brown, one of the 
founders of Tecumseh, the e v\^ere in January of 1827 
six hundred people in the county. ^^° By 1830 the popu- 
lation had grown to 1491,^"^ and to 7,911^^2 ^^y i^^^ 
There as elsewhere in the section the increase was the 
most rapid in the years beginning with 1833. It is 
reflected in the increase of the number of townships 
from four in 1833 to nine in 1834.^^^ The bulk of this 



167. Blois, Gazetteer, 281. 

168. Beakes, Pait and Present of Washtenaw County, 1313. 

169. Ibid., 1315. Risdon's map (1825) shows a village of Dix- 

boro, above Ypsilanti. This settlement was promoted 
by a speculator from Boston, who appears to have won 
the disfavor of settlers, and early gave up the experi- 
ment. See Beakes, Past and Present of Washtenaw 
County, 568. 

170. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 229-230; Territorial Laws, II, 292. 

171. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 

172. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. The figures for 1830 and 1834 prob- 

ably include Hillsdale County, as Hillsdale was attached 
to Lenawee until its organization in 1835, and the sepa- 
rate figures do not appear for it in the censuses. 

173. Territorial Laws, II, 478, 587; III, 998, 1275. 



234 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

population was in the northeast, in the vicinity of 
Tecumseh and Adrian. These were the start 'ng points 
for the numerous "land-lookers" that followed closely 
in the wake of the first settlers, where the houses of 
settlers served temporarily as inns, and where guides 
could be obtained to show the way to the best Govern- 
ment lands. In 1835-36 settlement went hand in hand 
with speculation in the lands of this county, and is 
marked by the organization of new townships. ^^^ By 
1837 the checker-board appearance of townships pre- 
vailed in all parts of the county excepting the eastern 
range, where Ridgeway and Riga had not yet been 
separated from Macon and Blissfield, a region of heavy 
timber.^^^ The sparseness of population in the south- 
ern townships, shown in the census of 1837, also indi- 
cates this impediment to settlement. The filling-in 
process about the older settlements and the very 
gradual extension of the frontier is reflected in the 
large numbers in the townships about Tecumseh and 
Adrian and the decreasing population towards the 
west. There were in the entire county in 1837 less 
than fifteen thousand people. ^^"^ 

Tecumseh owed its early rapid growth largely 
to the enterprise of its founders, who were able busi- 
ness men of means, but appear to have had ulterior 
motives. Austin E. Wing is quoted as saying to Mus- 

174. Territorial Laws, III, 1367; Session Laws (1835-36), 69, 70. 

175. Session Laws (1837), 44. The townships in the southern 

tier were not quite square, because of the addition of a 
narrow strip on the south to each by the adjustment of 
the Ohio boundary dispute. 

176. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 72. Hudson township 

appears not to have been returned. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 235 

grove Evans: "If we go into milling and farming, and 
establish a mill, "settlers will know that I am interested, 
and will vote to send me to Congress. If I am elected, 
with the aid of Gen. Jacob Brown, you can be ap- 
pointed government surveyor."^" The fruition of 
these hopes appeared to reqtiire the cooperation of 
Joseph W. Brown, who was a brother of Gen. Brown, 
and happily also a miller as well as a practical farmer. 
These men provided very early all that they could of 
1he essential institutions of village life on the frontier. 
In the first year they platted the village and secured 
for it recognition as a post village and county seat.-^^^ 
A sawmill, a gristmill, and a store soon followed.^^^ 
Lumber sawed there was vised to build the first frame 
house in 1825. A contemporary writer in the Detroit 
Journal and Michigan Advertiser, over the signature 
"Truth," reflects the impulse to growth received by the 
village in the early thirties, crediting the village in 
1832 with two schoolhouses, a gristmill, a sawmill, a 
tannery and a furniture factory. ^^° The latter indus- 
try appears to have become early somewhat of a speci- 
alty, according to Harriet Martineau, who observed in 
1836, "We reached Tecumseh at half -past nine, and 
perceived that its characteristic was chair-making. 
Every other house seemed to be a chair manufactory. "^^^ 

177. Mich.Hht. Coils., XXXVIII, 479. 

178. Ibid., I, 227. 

179. Ibid., I, 222, 228; Histcrical and Biographical Record of 

Lenawee Co-uniy, I, 41, 43. See early mention of the 
progress of the village and its advantages in the Detroit 
Gazeite for August 6, 1824; Oct. 1, 1824; Dec. 13, 1825. 

180. Detroit Journal and MicJiigan Advertiser, Jan. 4, 1832. 

181. Society in America, I, 320. 



236 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

It was "a pretty village laid out with broad streets and 
having an excellent tavern on a public square in the 
center," says Hoffman, writing late in 1833.^^^ A large 
factor in its early settlement was the possession of the 
county seat, but its position not being sufficiently cen- 
tral to the county, it lost this advantage about the 
close of this period in favor of the rival village of 
Adrian. ^^^ It had then a population of about one 
thousand. ^®^ 

Adrian, unlike Tecumseh, was founded originally by 
the enterprise of one individual, but it early drew to 
itself many settlers of means. Though it was platted 
four years later than Tecumseh, its more central posi- 
tion, making it the logical place for the county seat, 
induced its citizens early to begin an agitation to have 
the county seat removed thither from Tecumseh, and 
the prospect served to attract settlers to it. A saw 
mill was built before the village was platted, and a 
gristmill, a store and a frame schoolhouse had been 
added by 1829.^^^ In 1830 the population in the vicin- 

182. A Winter in the West, I, 149. 

183. The county-seat contest was vigorous. Tecumseh's side of 

the issue is presented in the Detroit Daily Free Press for 
March 17, 1836. The act for its removal is in Session 
Laws (1835-36), 83, dated March 21, 1836, but it was 
not to take effect until 1838. See also Mich. Hist. 
Colls., II, 364; XXXVIII, 483. 

184. Blois, Gazetteer, 372. Adrian's population contained a large 

number of Quakers, which is said to have had much 
to do with its early exemplary government, and with 
making it a prominent station on the "Underground 
Railroad" in ante-bellum days. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXVIII, 279. There were members of the Society 
of Friends also in Tecumseh, and in other parts of the 
county, particularly in Rollin Township. 

185. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, 1, 50, 

53. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 237 

ity of Adrian appears to have been nearly five hundred 
people. ^^"^ It is significant of its prospects that in 1834 
the first newspaper in the county was started at Adrian, 
and not at Tecumseh.^" This may have been in part 
owing to the prospect of the completion of the rail- 
road then being built from Toledo, of which Adrian 
seemed likely to be for some time the northern ter- 
minal. ^^^ The enterprise of the villagers is shown by 
the fact that the capital to build this road was sub- 
scribed mainly by Adrian citizens. The central posi- 
tion of the village, its acquisition of the county seat, 
its relation to the new railroad, and the enterprise of 
its citizens, were main agents in its successful struggle 
with Tecumseh for the line of the later Southern Rail- 
road from Monroe. By the close of the period it ap- 
pears to have had a population slightly greater than 
that of Tecumseh. ^^^ 

A nucleus of settlement was forming at the junction 
of the Chicago Road with a branch of the Raisin, just 
above Tecumseh, which was destined to develop into 
the village of CHnton. Its first settlers came in 1829-30, 
and a pioneer reports it to have had in 1831 about a 
dozen dwellings and two taverns, one of the latter a 
two-story frame structure.^ ^° Though overshadowed 
by Tecumseh, it profited by its position on the Chicago 
Road and awaited the agricultural development of 

186. Ibid., I, 54; Territcrial Laws, II, 587. This estimate is based 

on the population of Logan Township. The postoffice 
receipts in 1830 at Adrian were $58.57, at Tecumseh 
$99.99. 

187. Mich. Hist. Cells., I, 231. 

188. Ihid., II, 364. 

189. Blois, Gazetteer, 246. 

190. Mich. Hist. Colls.. II. 384. 



238 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the vicinity. By the close of the period its popula- 
tion had reached about half that of Tecumseh or 
Adrian. ^^^ 

The states from which came the founders of these 
first settlements of the section, ranged from Virginia 
and Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, New York, and 
Ohio, The leader of the first colony in Oakland County 
(Avon TownvShip) was of Irish stock, who had lived in 
early life at Tioga Point, Pennsylvania; he had mi- 
grated from there first, about the year 1800, to Oxford 
in Upper Canada, and in 1816 to Mt. Clemens. ^^- The 
members of the Pontiac Company were mainly natives 
or emigrants from Massachusetts, Vermont, Connec- 
ticut and New York.^^^ The Woodruft^'s Grove set- 
tlers in Washtenaw were originally from Ohio;^^^ their 
first accession was from Genesee, New York,^^^ and the 
first permanent settler of Ypsilanti was a native of 
Romulus in the same State. "*^ Of Ann Arbor's first 
two families, one came from Augusta County, Vir- 

191. Blois, Gazitteer, 265. Lenawee County was prolific in vil- 

lages. See Ibid., 257, 261, 299, 302, 309, 311, 315, 337, 
352, 364. Many more are mentioned, founded mainly 
in 1835-36 as speculations. One in Cambridge Town- 
ship, for instance, was started on Wolf Creek, a stream 
said to have been advertised as navigable for the largest 
class of steamboats, where city lots were sold for fabulous 
prices, and wild-cat bank-notes circulated by the uncut 
ream. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee 
County, II, 17. 

192. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 569. History of Oakland County 

(1876), 138. 

193. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 560, for list of these members. 

194. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 1099. 

195. Ibid., 118. 

196. Ibid., 1109. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 239 

ginia/^^ the other from Genesee County, New York. In 
the Tecumseh colony, Austin E, Wing, who, though he 
was a partner in the enterprise of founding the village, 
did not reside there, was a native of Berkshire County, 
Massachusetts ;^^^ the other partners, Evans and 
Brown, were both natives of Bucks County, Pennsyl- 
vania, ^^^ but had lived for some time in New York, 
principally at Brownsville in Jefferson County, from 
the vic'nity of which they brought a company of about 
twenty persons in 1824.-°° The founder of Adrian 
came from Palmyra, New York."°^ There is no doubt 
that the bulk of the early population of this section 
came from New York and the New England states. 

With scarcely an exception, people from widely 
separated localities were to be found in any of the 
early settlements. For example, in Avon Township 
there were between 1817 and 1825 settlers from Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York and Penn- 
sylvania. '^°" But in some places settlers from a partic- 
ular source strongly predominated, frequently those 
from New York. The principal source often appears 
to be indicated by the names of villages or townships, 
for it was very natural that men and women who had 
separated themselves from the old home should wish 
to perpetuate its memory in the name of the new 

197. Ibid., 884; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 333. 

198. Michigan Bicgrcphics, 704. 

199. Hislcrical and Biographical Reccid of Lenawee County, I, 41, 

61; Mich. Hiit. Colls., I, 111. 

200. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, I, 40; 

Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 111. 

201. Michigan Biographies, 186. 

202. History of Oakland County (1876), 130-139. 



240 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

center of village life; moreover, such names would 
naturally tend to encourage immigration from the 
source which they indicated and in some cases seem 
to have been deliberately chosen with that end in 
view. But it would be very misleading to take these 
names alone as evidence of a numerical superiority in 
any settlement. Townships were usually named in the 
legislative act which organized them, and while atten- 
tion would be paid to a preference expressed by the 
settlers themselves, the legislature often named town- 
ships arbitrarily; often a prominent settler had suffi- 
cient influence to cause his choice to prevail either with 
or against the other members of the community. 
Many examples might be given of names which seem 
significant for the sources of population: in Lenawee 
County, Woodstock and Cambridge, Seneca, Palmyra, 
Madison, Rome; in Washtenaw County, Bridgewater, 
Manchester and Salem, Scio, Sharon and Augusta; in 
Oakland County, Oxford, Addison, Orion, Avon and 
Milford, Commerce, Farmington, Lyon and Troy. 
These names in the main seem to point to New York, 
but a caution is suggested by a glance at the gazeteer, 
which shows their numerous prototypes in the states 
farther east.-^^ 

The foreign elements of the population of the section 
in this period were mainly English, Irish, Scotch and 
German. In 1830 the total number of foreigners in 

203. It is worth a passing notice that the names of the larger 
centers of population are of a different type. Pontiac 
and Tecumseh bear the names of Indian chiefs ; Ypsilanti 
bears the name of a Greek hero, and Adrian that of a 
Roman emperor; the name of Ann Arbor has a personal 
significance. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, ?>?>?). 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 241 

the three counties who were not naturaHzed amounted 
to 128,^°^ but this probably represents only a small pro- 
portion of the settlers who were born in foreign lands. 
They were distributed as follows: in Oakland 84; in 
Washtenaw 27 ; in Lenawee 17. The Germans were more 
numerous in Washtenaw County, and settled mainly in 
the townships of Ann Arbor and Freedom }^^ The center 
of their settlement in Washtenaw County in 1833 
seems to be indicated by the situation of their first 
Church, two miles west of Ann Arbor. "^"^ Hoffman, in 
the account of his visit to the village of Ann Arbor in 
1833, does not mention Germans, but Englishmen i-*^^ 
and a nucleus of Englishmen seems to have formed 
about 1830 in Independence Township in Oakland 
County. -°^ In 1831 a small colony of English and 
Irish distinguished for learning and culture, settled in 
Lenawee County on the shore of Sand Lake, Cam- 
bridge Township. Irish settlers are mentioned fre- 
quently, and also the fact that they showed a prefer- 
ence for the lake district. -°^ Two Scotch centers of 
settlement in that county seem to have formed in West 
Bloomfield and Highland townships. "^° In 1825 a 
company of thirty Canadians from South Yarmouth 
are said to have settled in Avon Township. ^^^ 

204. U. S. Census (1830), 115. 

205. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 249, 250, 254; History of Wash- 

tenaw County (1881), 1292; Beakes, Past and Present of 
Washtenaw County, 651-658. 

206. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 255. 

207. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 157. The reference to 

Englishmen is possibly a typographical error. 

208. History of Oakland County (1876), 207. 

209. Ihid., 138, 184, 193, 207, 275, and passim. 

210. Ibid., 201, 314. 

211. Ibid.. 132. 

31 



242 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

While the colonies were usually founded by individ- 
ual initiative and enterprise, frequently a number of 
families migrated from the old home together, as is 
reported in the case of the Canadians from Yarmouth 
and the settlers of Farmington.-^- Organized business 
effort founded Pontiac and Tecumseh. In some colo- 
nies a religious bond furnished one of the motives for 
group settlement and encouraged the addition of simi- 
larly minded immigrants. Such were the Quaker set- 
tlem.ents in Tecumseh, Adrian, and Farmington, and 
the Free Church settlement in Superior Township in 
Washtenaw County. -^'^ Apparently the only social ex- 
periment in colonization was that tried from England 
by a wealthy disciple of Robert Owen, who purchased 
and planned to colonize thirteen eighty-acre tracts in 
Bloomfield and West Bloomfield townships in Oakland 
County. The scheme failed, ^^^ it is said, through lack 
of enterprise on the part of its promoter. 

The section was as yet too young and the struggle 
with nature too severe to permit of much development 

212. Ihid., 166. 

213. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 528; Historical and Biographical 

Record of Lenawee County, II, 48; History of Oakland 
County (1876), 166; History of Washtenaw County (1881), 
1066. There were few religious eccentrics among the set- 
tlers of this section, Hke the Mormons in Ilhnois of about 
the same time, though it is interesting to note an edi- 
torial in the Detroit Courier for May 8, 1833, quoting a 
letter written from Auburn, Oakland County, pubHshed 
in the Rochester Revivalist, saying that two "Momionite 
preachers" had recently made their appearance in the 
vicinity, and had made several converts. A small settle- 
ment of Momions in Highland Township is mentioned in 
the History of Oakland County (1876), p. 201. They 
appear to have left the county, however, before 1836. 

214. Ibid., 312. 



THE FIRST INLAND COUNTIES 243 

in the institutions of culture. Embryo newspapers 
struggled for patronage at the county seats. '^^ Primi- 
tive schools existed in every township, ^i*^ and there 
were small academies in Pontiac and Ann Arbor. -^'^ 
Church organizations were established side by side 
with the schools, and in the larger centers separate 
church buildings were erected. Good government and 
good morals prevailed generally, though there were 
some sharp contrasts. -^^ 

215. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 231, 336; VI, 96; VII, 232. 

216. The settled townships in Oakland County are said to have 

had in 1831 an average of three schools. Detroit Journal 
and Michigan Advertiser, May 18, 1831. 

217. History of Washtenaw County (1881), 611 ; History of Oakland 

County (1876), 92; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 400. 

218. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 223; XXVIII, 146; History of Oakland 

County (1876), 110. 



CHAPTER V 

St. Joseph Valley and Chicago Road 

^HE section of Michigan Territory which was set- 
tied next after Oakland, Washtenaw, and Lenawee 
counties, is comprised in the five counties westward 
from Lenawee — Hillsdale, Branch, Cass, St. Joseph, 
and Berrien. Reaching from Lenawee County to Lake 
Michigan, this area borders at the south upon the 
states of Ohio and Indiana, and at the north upon the 
counties of Jackson, Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Allegan. 
The characteristic features of this section were in the 
early days of settlement, as they are now, similar to 
those of Oakland, Washtenaw, and Lenawee counties, 
having a common origin in glacial action. The surface 
varies from gently undulating to rolling and slightly 
hilly, being lowest in the western portion near Lake 
Michigan, where it reaches an elevation of about one 
hundred and fifty feet, and it rises to an altitude of over 
six hundred feet above lake level in Hillsdale County, 
at the eastern end of the section.^ The surface of Cass 
County is fairly level, that of St. Joseph moderately 
undulating, while the westernmost county, Berrien^ 
more nearly resembles, excepting in general elevation, 
the counties of Branch and Hillsdale.^ Hillsdale is 



1. Tackabury, Atlas, 11. 

2. History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties, 127. 

3. See Prof. C. A. Davis's description of the surface geology 

of the region of Cass County in Glover's History oj Cass 
County; Blois, Gazetteer, 241. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 245 

; ■ : ■ ! 

preeminently a county of hills and dales,^ and from 
its varied surface it receives a natural beauty quite 
equal to that found in parts of Oakland. This crest 
of the ancient glacial moraine is the highest table-land 
in the southern peninsula, forming a principal part of 
the watershed between lakes Erie and Michigan, and 
the springs and small lakes which dot its slopes give 
rise to four important rivers — the Raisin, the Grand, 
the Kalamazoo and the St. Joseph.^ 

The trend of the surface carries the waters of this 
section towards Lake Michigan, through its single river 
system, the St. Joseph,*^ which unifies the section by 
affording uniformly excellent power and drainage, and a 
current sufficiently gentle, deep and wide to permit of 
navigation by small boats throughout the entire course 
of the main stream. At a very early date sawmills 

4. The county appears to have been named from this physical 

feature, though the name is borne by places in the East 
— for example, in Columbia County, New York, in In- 
diana County, Pennsylvania, and Bergen County, New 
Jersey — from whence settlers might have brought it to 
Michigan. 

5. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 19, 28; Collin, His- 

tory of Branch County, 16; Blois, Gazetteer, 220-221 ; Mich. 
Hist. Colls., I, 168, 171. 

6. According to a description said to be quoted from the St. 

Joseph Beacon but based largely on Farmer's Emigrant's 
Guide, appearing in the Detroit Free Press for Oct. 11, 
1832, "the St. Joseph country" seems not to have in- 
cluded Hillsdale County, and to have covered, besides 
the rest of the southern tier of counties, Calhoun and 
ICalamazoo counties in Michigan and what were then 
La Grange, Elkhart, St. Joseph and LaPorte counties in 
Indiana. This was justified by the position of northern 
branches of the river and by its southern bend through 
northern Indiana. The usage is well to remember in 
reading estimations of population for "the St. Joseph 
country." 



246 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

began to appear at niimerous points, and gristmills 
very soon followed. A carding mill is said to have 
been started on a branch of the St Joseph in Cass 
County as early as 1830.^ 

Small lakes similar to those in Oakland and Wash- 
tenaw were very numerous in this section, especially in 
the eastern part, and the excellent fish which came up 
the streams from the Great Lakes were a welcome ad- 
dition to the food supply of the early settlers.^ Again, 
the beauty of the environment is said frequently to 
have been one of the motives of settlement, as at Lake 
Gilead in Branch County ^ There were a few extensive 
marshes, the largest of which were in southern Branch 
County east of Lake Gilead, and in St Joseph County 
above Middle Lake, also along Dowagiac Creek in Cass 
Covmty and in the western part of Berrien. ^° 

The soil, with very few exceptions, was uniformly 
fertile. There was one extensive tract of comparatively 
poor sandy land along the shore of Lake Michigan in 
the northwestern part of Berrien, and narrow bands of 
heavy lake clay along the shore south of this sandy 
tract made a soil like that so characteristic of Monroe 
and Wayne counties. The level clay loam, of the kind 
predominating in western Lenawee, formed the soil of 
large areas in parts of Berrien, and in Branch and 
Hillsdale, but the prevailing soil of the section was a 
rich gravelly or sandy loam, comparatively open and 
easy to cultivate. The early settlers seem to have 
considered the yellow sandy loam of the white and 

7. Glover, History of Cass County, 154. 

8. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 20. 

9. Collin, History of Branch County, 70. 

10. Mich. Geol. Survey Rep. (1907), map in pocket. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 247 

yellow oak-Openings sterile." Doubtless their prefer- 
ence for the darker loam of the prairies was partly 
due to greater familiarity with that kind of soil in 
Ohio and Indiana.^^ In 1838 Blois reported for Berrien 
County "exuberant crops, "^-^ which appear to have 
grown mainly on the prairies. He says that the soil 
of St. Joseph County, where the first settlements were 
largely upon the prairies, was "formerly considered 
the best in the State."" 

Large portions of the section were unusually free 
from dense forest. The only large continuous areas 
presenting this obstruction to settlement were on the 
clay land in southern Hillsdale and Branch counties, 
and in the southwestern part of Berrien. The northern 
part of Hillsdale is said to have been like a succession 
of orchards, and it was probably in- these openings the 
"strawberries were so plentiful that the cows often 
came home with their feet stained with the juice of 
the delicious fruit. "^^ Northern Branch County, ex- 
cepting in small areas, as in Union Township, was 
equally inviting to the early settler. Estimates of the 
amount of heavily timbered land in Branch vary from 
one-half to one-third of the county's area.^*^ There 

11. Blois, Gazetteer, 215. 

12. Glover, History of Cass County, 113. 

13. Blois, Gazetteer, 214. 

14. Ibid., 241. 

15. Collin, History of Branch County, 19, 22; Blois, Gazetteer, 

220-221; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 181. 

16. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 216; Blois, Gazetteer, 214. The first 

articles appearing in the newspapers calling attention 
to Branch County mention the "extensive forests of fine 
maple" in the southeast, and the open lands and prairies 
of the north and northwest. See for example the De- 
troit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for June 1, 1831, 
and May 2, 1832. 



248 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

were scattered openings in Berrien, and some prairie 
land, but dense forest covered the greater portion of 
its area.^^ In fact the larger portion of the entire sec- 
tion was covered with oak openings, burr-oak plains, 
and small prairies, the former being specially valued 
by settlers from the East, the latter by settlers from 
the South. Cass and St. Joseph counties were the 
most open of all in the section, having the most numer- 
ous and the largest prairies, and it was these counties 
that early gained most rapidly in population ^^ Of the 
prairie land, there were two important areas in Berrien, 
one south of Niles and one about Berrien Springs. ^^ 
Branch County had several small prairies, in the vicin- 
ity of Bronson, Girard and Coldwater. Hillsdale was 
the least favored with prairie land, and the fact that 
its first settlements were made upon what it contained 
of this land shows that it was a natural advantage 
strongly preferred by settlers. 

The general effect of the relative position of the open 
and forested lands in the section can easily be made 
to appear. The belt of dense forest observed in Lena- 
wee County to have been unfavorable to the rapid ex- 
tension of the frontier, continued its northern border 
in a southwesterly direction across Hillsdale and 
Branch, and passed into Indiana before reaching St. 
Joseph County. On the north of this line, oak open- 

17. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 166, 192; Blois, Gazet- 

teer, 214. 

18. The relative slowness with which the more heavily forested 

lands in these counties were settled, is illustrated by the 
vicinity of Marcellus in Cass County. Glover, History 
of Cass County, 117. It received its first settlers in 1836, 
and had in 1843 but eigjhteen voters. 

19. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 198, 208. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 249 

ings and burr-oak plains interspersed with patches of 
heavy timber and fertile prairie land extended west- 
ward to Lake Michigan. The relation of these two 
areas helped to determine the position of the Chicago 
Trail and hence of the national turnpike, which was 
the main axis of settlement in the section. Approach- 
ing the section in a westerly direction from northern 
Lenawee, this trail entered Hillsdale County near the 
northeast corner, continued its direction across the 
north of Hillsdale, whence, proceeding southwestward 
across Branch, it entered St. Joseph County near the 
southeast corner; from there it continued almost 
straight west across the southern part of St. Joseph 
and Cass counties, passing out of the Territory across 
the southeast corner of Berrien. ^° Its general course 
suggests that the Indians sought to avoid the heavy 
timber of Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe 
counties; its minor windings seem to have been partly 
determined by the prairies, which the Indians crossed 
where convenient, and on the edges of whose fertile 
open areas they established their villages. The sur- 
veyors of the national turnpike, the earY exploring 
parties, and the first settlers, were thus at once brought 
into direct contact with these prairies and their natural 
advantages for transportation and agriculture. 

The direct effect of the prairies on settlement is 
abundantly attested in every county of the section, 
but especially in the southwest. It was to be ex- 
pected that immigration, seeking the lines of least re: 
sistance, would early move along the Chicago Road, but 
the first settlements in the section were not made from 



20. Lanman, Michigan, map in front. 



250 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the east ; they were made from Ohio and Indiana, and 
by settlers who reached the Territory over a branch of 
the Chicago Trail leading from Fort Wayne who had 
heard of the prairie lands in St. Joseph and Cass 
counties and had come to occupy them. The early 
settlement of the section was the result of a com- 
bined movement of population, of which before 1830 
the immigration from the south to the southwestern 
prairies was by far the more important. 

This southwestern settlement undoubtedly was one 
factor in determining the general relative rate of settle- 
ment of different parts of this section throughout this 
period. It appears to explain, in part, why the coun- 
ties of Hi Isdale and Branch, which were farthest east, 
and whose lands came onto the market first, were settled 
latest and least rapidly. The population of Cass and 
St. Joseph had each passed the three thousand mark 
by 1834, and Berrien was approaching eighteen hun- 
dred ;^^ Branch county had not at that time reached a 
population of eight hundred, and Hillsdale numbered 
but a little over five hundred.-- The comparative 
backwardness of Hillsdale and Branch counties had 
three principal causes. There was first the tendency 
of Tecumseh, Adrian and the other older settlements in 
the eastern part of the Territory to assimilate those 
immigrants, who, while wishing to get good lands, pre- 
ferred a comparatively close neighborhood; secondly, 
there was the forest barrier against immigration from 
the south into the lower parts of these counties, com- 
bined with the presence of inviting prairies in the open 

21. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

22. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 28. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 251 

country to the west, which gave St. Joseph and Cass 
counties a good start before the pubhc land sales and 
the improvement of the Chicago Road facilitated the 
influx of settlers from the eastern states; again, there 
was the power of concentration enjoyed by the thriv- 
ing southwestern settlements, attracting such eastern 
settlers as might be willing to leave the vicinity of the 
older settlements. 

At the time of the Cass expedition over the Chicago 
Trail in 1820, this whole section was a primitive 
wilderness, save for the Indians and a few French 
traders at the Indian villages and on the prairies 
and the banks of the St. Joseph. The Indian 
claims to the region were ceded by a succession 
of treaties from 1821 to 1833.^3 The Indians 
retained a few reservations the total area of which 
was not great; but since they occupied some of 
the most attractive prairie land in the section, and 
since the character of the Indians was generally such 
that newcomers tended to avoid their neighbor- 
hood, these reservations were temporarily a retard- 
ing influence upon the spread of settlement in their 
vicinity. They were found chiefly at Coldwater in 
Branch County, in the northern part of St. Joseph, and 
in the southeastern part of Berrien. The entire area 
of Berrien south of the St. Joseph River and west of 
the Pare aux Vaches, was not ceded until 1833;-^ as it 
was in the main heavily forested, there was little pres- 
sure for its cession, except from speculators in timber. 
While the presence of the Indians on the prairies was 

23. Bureau of American Ethnology, IStli Annual Report, Part 

2, pp. 702, 718, 740, 750. 

24. Ibid., pp. 702, 750. 



252 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

by virtue of their occupation of the land a retarding 
influence, their personal relations with the white set- 
tlers do not seem to have been hostile. There was in 
1832 some anxiety that the Indians of the section 
might rise to join Black Hawk, and though the fear 
seems to have been groundless from the Indians' point 
of view, the effect was temporarily quite material up- 
on settlement."^ On the passing of this trouble the 
early fear of them appears to have softened into a feel- 
ing of pity for their approaching fate, which seems to 
be the meaning of the general indifference of settlers 
to staying after they had ceded their lands. Ap- 
parently however, throughout this period, the life es- 
pecially of the women was materially influenced by 
suspicions of their intentions and by the grossness of 
their habits when influenced by liquor.-*^ 

The peopling of the section received its first ap- 
preciable impulse from the establishment of the Carey 
Mission in Berrien County, and from the survey of 
the Chicago Road. The Carey Mission, founded from 
Fort Wayne, Indiana, under the auspices of the Terri- 
torial government of Michigan, attracted attention es- 
pecially from Indiana and Ohio, and the reports about 

25. Glover, History of Cass County, 103; Collin, History oj 

Branch County, 27; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 498-499. 

26. An illustration of the better class among the Indians of this 

vicinity is furnished by the Indian settlement in 
Silver Creek Township in Cass County, under the Pota- 
watomi Chief Pokagon, which became a center of Catho- 
lic influence. Glover, History of Cass County, 285; Mich. 
Hist. Colls., XIV, 260. See also Mrs. Hulst's graceful 
tribute to the character of these Indians, in her Indian 
Sketches, 40-111. Pokagon, on Pokagon Prairie, the 
earliest of the settlements in Cass County, still preserves 
the name of Chief Pokagon. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 253 

the fertile prairies with their marginal forests led to a 
considerable immigration from below Michigan. At 
first the mission was a point of radiation for the exten- 
sion of the frontier, but as settlement struck root firm- 
ly in the lands to the eastward, immigration to them 
became direct. The survey of the Chicago Road at- 
tracted attention particularly in the East, and in the 
wake of the surveyors came parties of hunters, pros- 
pectors and homeseekers. These early settlers were 
squatters, still few in number when the first lands of 
the section came into market in 1829. There were at 
that date less than two thousand people in the whole 
section." The year 1829 marked a distinct advance 
in the western settlement of Michigan. Many coun- 
ties were then established, and Cass and St. Joseph 
were organized. The formation of local government 
by the Territorial legislature and the possibility of 
securing valid titles to land were strong inducements 
to settlement. 

The difficulties which attended a journey to the 
western part of this section n the early days were 
very great and retarded settlement materially. 
A pioneer of 1828, starting on horseback from 
Sandusky, Ohio, waded knee-deep for miles through 
Cottonwood Swamp, breaking the ice for his horse 
as he went, and reached the mission after two 
weeks of travel without meeting the sign of a 
habitation.-^ The trail from Fort Wayne to the 
mission was rough and dangerous, crossed by many 

27. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 

28. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 123-124. 



254 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

vStreams.^'-^ The Chicago Road was not surveyed 
until about the time the southwestern counties re- 
ceived their first settlers from Ohio and Indiana; in a 
sense it may be said to have followed the first immigra- 
tion from the East, being practically only a "paper 
road" until actual travel made a real highway out of 
the old Indian trail. The first immigrants over it 
threaded the primitive wilderness, fording streams, 
wading swamps, and sleeping in the forest.^'' Some use 
was early made of water transportation, especially for 
goods, by way of the Straits of Mackinac and then 
inland by small boats up the St. Joseph River. ^^ About 
1830 mill-irons which w^ere destined for a point in 
Branch County were brought from Detroit in this 
way."^" 

The line of the Chicago Road was the great axis of 
settlement in this section, and from settlements made 
there the frontier extended to neighboring prairies, oak 
openings and timbered land. Settlers along the road 
opened their log cabins as taverns to accommodate the 
traveler, and these spots became centers of informa- 

29. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 20, 37. 

30. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 222. 

31. Ibid., I, 124; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 176-177. 

32. Collin, History of Branch County, 43. The all-water route, 

however, was expensive and open only part of the year. 
Transportation by the Chicago Road seems not to have 
been considered sufificient in 1833 to take care of the in- 
creasing production in the St. Joseph country. In the 
Detroit Courier for Nov. 27, 1833, is reported a meeting 
of settlers in the vicinity of White Pigeon to petition for 
a railroad between Lake Erie and Lake Michigan, one of 
the first movements culminating in the later Southern 
Railroad. This was a project not to be realized for this 
part of the section, however, for two decades. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLP:Y and CHICAGO ROAU 255 

tion about the surrounding country. ^^ The following 
illustration of one of these taverns and of life on the 
Chicago Road in the early thirties is typical :^^ 

"Immediately after the opening of the Chicago Road 
Jonesville presented daily the appearance of a pioneer 
I camp. All around the little log house of entertain- 
I ment, where Beniah and Lois Jones made so comfort- 
ing a welcome as to cause the wayworn travelers often 
to forget the discomforts they had experienced in the 
tangled undergrowth and deep mires of the Cotton- 
wood and Black swamps, which their wearisome jour- 
I ney from the east had compelled them to cross, white- 
topped wagons were thickly packed together, and men, 
' women and children engaged in earnest conversation. 
. . . Emerging from the forest, coming from the 
j east, would appear a hardy and stalwart pioneer in 
the prime of life, guiding the ox -team, or teams, that 
bore along all of the family's persona effects. His 
boys followed, driving perhaps a cow or two, and a few 
' pigs and sheep. His wife and daughters, tired of their 
; long tramp of many weary miles through the woods 
and swamps and over rough roads, trudged scatteringly 
I behind. Sometimes a hale, white-haired patriarch, 
j staff in hand, with head erect and firm step, would 
j march at the head of the teams or among the grown-up 
I and married sons and daughters, undaunted by^the 
; privations and hardships that he knew so well from 
'! former experiences, must be their lot in their new 

33. Thirty-three taverns in one county (Branch) on the Chicago 
Road are said to have been noted by a passing settler in 
I 1837. Collin, History of Branch County, 30. 

^34. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 32. 



256 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

homes. . , Following these might be seen others, 

and more favored immigrants, who had passed less 
time on the way, for they rode in covered wagons- 
drawn by sleek well-groomed horses, indicating owners 
in prosperous circumstances." 

By 1830 two stages weekly were running from Detroit 
to the southwest over the Chicago Road. Postoffices 
were established along the road at intervals. Enter- 
prising settlers introduced stocks of goods at these most 
frequented points, which became distributing centers, 
markets, and nuclei of village life. Active improve- 
ment of the Chicago Road by the Government began 
in 1831-32; stages were increased to three a week in 
the early part of 1832 and were coming daily by 
1835.^^^ The year 1831 was a significant year for the 
platting of villages and the establishment of county 
seats. 

This section experienced, in common with the rest of 
the Territory, a temporary check to immigration from 
the Black Hawk War and the cholera epidemics of 
1832 and 1834. It has been asserted that stages were 
in 1832 withdrawn from the Chicago Road for want of 
passengers;'^*' but the year 1833 witnessed a renewal 
of immigration. Hillsdale County, a' so Branch, which 
was organized in that year, began to feel the effects of 
the new tide from New York." For the total popula- 

35. Glover, History of Cass County, 170; History of Berrien and 

Van Bur en Counties, 51. 

36. Collin, History of Branch County, 30; Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 

239. 

37. Territorial Laws, III, 1362. The dates of county organiza- 

tion in the section — 1829, 1831, 1833, 1835— correspond 
approximately to the four great impulses to its settle- 
ment. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 257 

tion of the counties of this section at the beginning of 
1833 there are no statistics, but if a judgment may be 
made from the number of new settlements and the 
rapidity with which the frontier was extended, more 
people were received in the two years 1833-34 than in 
all the time preceding. Before the close of 1834 there 
were over nine thousand people in the section; by 
1837 the number had increased to more than twenty- 
five thousand. 

The stages of immigration to this section are re- 
flected in a comparison of populations. The whole sec- 
tion numbered in 1834 but little more than the popula- 
tion of the single county of Monroe, in the same tier of 
counties. It was far surpassed by each of the counties 
of Washtenaw and Oakland, ^^ and was nearly doubled 
by the population of Wayne. Detroit alone contained 
almost one-half as many people as this whole south- 
western section. ^^ By 1837 the section had much more 
than doubled the population of Monroe County, and 
considerably exceeded that of either Washtenaw or 
Oakland, having about one-half the population of those 
counties combined with Lenawee, and a little more 
than that of Wayne County including Detroit. 

People came to this section by two great movements 
of immigration, and the early population of the sec- 
tion is therefore varied. The settlers of St. Joseph, 
Cass and Berrien appear to have come intermediately 
from Ohio and Indiana, and in less numbers from 
Kentucky and Tennessee; a majority, either by birth 

38. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

39. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 336. 

33 



258 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

or descent, were traceable to the South Atlantic states, 
in particular Virginia and North Carolina. 

At first the two western counties of St. Joseph and 
Cass were favorites. They had the least dense forest, 
the greatest number of prairies which appealed especi- 
ally to Southern immigrants, and an approach that was 
comparatively easy. Berrien County occupied in rate 
of settlement a middle position up to 1834, for several 
reasons — its greater distance west, its smaller amount 
of prairie land, the small proportion of its area that was 
within easy reach of the Chicago Road, and the late 
date at which its lands came upon the market. Yet it 
was in Berrien County that settlement was first begun. 
The French were early there, though their occupation 
of southwestern Michigan left little but traditions and 
a few geographical names, ^° and a small number of 
French traders gave a little aid to the first settlers."*^ 
But the earliest real impulse to agricultural settlement 
in this region came from the Carey Indian Mission, 

40. For example, St. Joseph, Prairie Ronde, La Grange, Pare 

aux Vaches and Bertrand. See also, Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXVII, 179-186-, for activities south of Niles about Fort 
St. Joseph. The History of Berrien and Van Buren 
Counties, 127-130, gives some account of the early French 
at the site of the present city of St. Joseph. 

41. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 19, 20, 171-172, 206; 

Glover, History of Cass County, 38-39; History of St. 
Joseph County (1877), 220; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 332; II, 
490; VI, 423. A French trading post appears to have 
been established in 1833 at the site of the present village 
of Mendon in St. Joseph County, whose founder is said 
to have given much aid to the first settlers of that neigh- 
borhood. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 404-406. 
Though the place received its first settler in 1834, ap- 
parently the village was not platted until 1845. History 
of St. Joseph County (1877), 220, 223. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 259 

whose official nature and reputation made it the head- 
quarters for settlers and a point from which the frontier 
was extended. 

The Carey Mission was established in 1822-23, under 
the auspices of Governor Cass, whose interest in the 
project appears to have been a direct result of his ex- 
pedition to this region in 1820. At the head of this 
enterprise Cass appointed the Reverend Isaac McCoy, 
a native of Pennsylvania, who as a Baptist missionary 
had conducted a French and Indian mission at Fort 
Wayne, Indiana. The result was the emigration of 
about fifty persons, in 1822, from the vicinity of Fort 
Wayne to a point about a mile west of the present city 
of Niles, where within the following year they built 
six mission houses.'^- In 1824 the report of the Indian 
agent called the Carey Mission "a colony firmly settled, 
numerous, civilized and happy," having fifty acres 
cleared and fenced, on which had been raised sixteen 
hundred bushels of corn, one hundred and fifty bushels 

42. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 12; V, 146. A general secondary ac- 
count of the founding of the mission, together with much 
data for the sources of early settlers near it, is given in 
the History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 
153-163,260-264. McCoy tells of the beginnings of his 
relations with Cass in connection with the Fort Wayne 
Mission in his Baptist Indian Missions, 90. See Ibid., 
71-89, for an account of McCoy's work at the Fort Wayne 
Mission. Cass' letter of instructions to McCoy, dated 
July 16, 1822, appears in the same work, 145-154; among 
other requirements McCoy was to report twice a year to 
the governor of Michigan Territory and to the Indian 
agent at Chicago. A summary of McCoy's first report 
from the Carey Mission is given at p. 201, and an ac- 
count of the mission in the same year (1823) by Mr. 
Keating is quoted on pp. 197-198 from Vol. I, of Major 
Long's Expedition to the Sources of the St. Peter's. 



260 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of oats, and four hundred bushels of potatoes.*^ In 
1826 another report made to Cass credits the mission 
with over two hundred acres of land fenced, fifty 
planted to corn, and eight acres to potatoes and other 
vegetables.''^ The next year Cass personally visited the 
mission to treat with the Potawatomis, having been, 
as McCoy says, a sort of patron of the mission.^'' 

Settlement began early to spread out from the Carey 
Mission, but McCoy apparently did not favor the set- 
tlement of the neighboring lands by whites. He says 
he was continually haunted by the painful reflection 
that the Indians would soon be displaced by them; he 
writes, "Our location was so remote from the settle- 
ments of white people when we first made it, and the 
inconveniences of reaching and residing at it so great, 
that we hoped, at that time, to be able to push forward 
the work of civilization to a state not much liable to 
injury by the proximity of white population, before 
we should be crowded out."'^^ Of the sort of influence 
that made the missionary in general unfriendly to the 
advance of the white man's frontier, he gives an ex- 
ample that is typical — a man from Indiana came in 

43. McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, 241, Report of Mr. Leib 

to Lewis Cass. This report, dated Nov. 20, 1824, was 
transmitted to the Secretary of War and published in an 
eastern paper, the Columbia Star, from which it was 
quoted in toto by the Detroit Gazette of Sept. 26, 1826. 
The editor of the Gazette says it is the first time he has 
read it, showing that it was probably not known at 
Detroit before its appearance in the Gazette in 1826. 

44. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 17. In 1827 Cass per- 

sonally visited the Carey Mission to treat with the Pota- 
watomis. McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, 319. 

45. McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, 319. 

46. Ibid., 264. 




LEWIS CASS 

{Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXIX, 272) 

From the oil i)aintinK in Kepreseiitative Hall at I^ansins. — Lewis Cass as Governor of 
Michigan Territory from 1813 to 1881 was the greatest single personal inflnence in the 
settlement of the Territory. He was a native of New Hampshire and came to Mich- 
igan from Ohio to serve iii the War of 1812. He was made lirigadier Ceneral in 1813. 
From 1831 to 1836 he was Secretary of A\ar under President .Jackson: from 183fi to 1842, 
Minister to France; from 184.5 to 1848 and again from 1849 to 18.57, lnite<i States Sena- 
tor from Michigan; and from 1857 to 1860, Secretary of State under President Buchanan. 
His life spanned the formative period in the national life, extending from 1782 to 1866. 
See p. 50. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 261 

the Spring of 1825 afoot and alone to the mission and 
made a settlement on the St. Joseph River as near to 
the mission as he could without trespassing on the 
claims of the Indians; notwithstanding that he was 
dependent on the mission for subsistence, and regard- 
less of protest, he procured a barrel of whiskey and 
began selling it to the Indians. It appears that in 
1829 McCoy and his family left the mission for the 
West.^^ 

Outside of the mission and west of Tecumseh there 
were, in 1825, only nine white families — seven in Berrien 
County and two in Cass.^^ One of the most prominent 
settlers in Cass county was a mission teacher, Bald- 
win Jenkins, born at Fort Jenkins in Green County, 
Pennsylvania, who had early emigrated to Tennessee 
but had left to avoid the presence of slavery.^^ He 
came to the mission from Green County, Ohio.^° Two 
days earlier than Jenkins came Uzziel Putnam, also 
from Ohio, a native of Wardsboro, Vermont. ^^ Put- 
nam had formerly lived in Massachusetts and New 
York, and came to Cass from Erie County, Ohio, by 
way of Fort Wayne and the mission.^- These settlers 
with their families founded on Pokagon Prairie the nu- 
cleus of Pokagon village. As illustrating the impor- 
tance attaching to the first settlers of a region, it 
should be mentioned that Jenkins was appointed by 
Governor Cass justice of the peace for St. Joseph 

47. Ibid., 386. 

48. Glover, History of Cass County, 43 ; Mich. Hist. Colls. , V, 149. 

49. Glover, History of Cass County, 45, 143. 

50. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 150. 

51. Ibid., XVIII, 347. 

52. Glover, History of Cass County, 40, 41. 



262 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Township, which included then all the country west 
of Lenawee County, was one of the first associate 
judges under the Territorial government, and became 
a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1835.^^ 

The mission, the prairies, the Chicago Trail, and 
water power, made the combination of influences that 
determined the location of the first settlements in Cass 
County. The influence of the mission is seen in the 
location of the first settlements of Cass, in the western 
part of the county. The settlement of Pokagon Prairie 
in 1825 was followed by the settlement at Edwards- 
burg, on Beardsley's Prairie, in 1826.^^ The first, 
unlike the second, was not on the Chicago Trail, but 
considerably north of the mission, just to the east of 
Dowagiac Creek and near where the carding mill was 
started in 1830. Water power was a chief motive of 
the settlement at Adams ville, at the junction of the 
Chicago Road with Christian Creek. ^^ Settlement first 
reached the eastern part of the county on a prairie 
crossed by the Chicago Road at Union. ^"^ In 1829 the 
northern part of the county was reached at Little 
Prairie Ronde, by natives of New Jersey, who are said 
to have emigrated from Union County, Indiana." 

The first settlements in St. Joseph County appear to 
have had no special connection with the mission. Im- 
migration from the South began to blend very early 
there with that from the East, though the former was 

53. Glover, History of Cass County, 43; Michigan Biographies, 

375. 

54. Glover, History of Cass Coi4.nty, 45, 120. 

55. Ibid., 124. 

56. Ibid., 125. 

57. Ibid., 51. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 263 

until the end of this period strongly preponderant. 
The survey of the Chicago Road tended to dispel the 
false ideas of the interior which had been held in the 
East, and parties of prospectors, hunters and home- 
seekers were led to follow its "blazes" to the south- 
west.^^ In the spring of 1825 the Detroit Gazette, on 
the basis of information received from the surveyors, 
called attention to the excellent lands on the head- 
waters of the St. Joseph, ^^ and soon afterward the 
Michigan Herald commented on the progress of the 
land surveys upon "the St. Joseph and the Canama- 
zoo."^° Within two years natives of Maine and Ver- 
mont, from Brownstown in Wayne County, Michigan, 
and from Jennings County, Indiana, settled on White 
Pigeon and Sturgis prairies, arriving by way of 
Monroe and Tecumseh; the trip was made in about 
twenty days.*^^ In 1827 at the first election held in 
White Pigeon, the county polled fourteen votes,*^^ rep- 
resenting probably the strength of the voting popula- 
tion on the two prairies. Settlement on other prairies 
soon followed. "^^ The site of Mottville on the St. 
Joseph River was in 1827 selected for a mill site by a 
settler from Crawford County, Ohio. Many settlers 
followed from that county,'^^ and in the next year a 

58. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 14; Reynolds, History 

of Hillsdale County, 24. 

59. Detroit Gazette, March 18, 1825. 

60. Michigan Herald, Feb. 14, 1826. 

61. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 489, 493; XVIII, 223, 373, 517; His- 

tory of St. Joseph County (1877), 14, 61, 62, 71. 

62. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 513. 

63. Ihid., I, 123; II, 489; IV, 217, 219, 424; XVIII, 349, 353, 

609. 

64. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 86, 137, 212. 



264 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

typical pioneer "first store" was established of which 
the stock was "codfish, a keg of tobacco and five 
barrels of whiskey. "*^^ By 1829 the frontier had 
reached the northern part of the county on Nottawa 
sepe Prairie, near the Indian reservation.^*^ 

Despite the mission, the early settlement of Berrien 
Coimty suffered from competition with Cass and St. 
Joseph. Settlers who were attracted to its vicinity 
from the South by the fame of the mission, soon moved 
away to the prairies eastward, which fast gathered 
population. Settlement in Berrien struck root firmly 
in 1829, when Niles village was platted by a colony of 
three Southern families who had come thither the pre- 
vious year*^^ from Richmond, Indiana; one of the most 
influential of the families was native to Virginia ;^^ they 
established a store and their account books for 1828 
register for that year the names of seventeen custom- 
ers. °^ The success of this colony was due not a little 
to the charming site they chose on the banks of the 
St. Joseph near where it crossed the Chicago Trail. 
Settlement soon followed elsewhere in the county. In 
the year in which Niles was platted a family of Poles 
from Preble County, Ohio , settled about a mile down 
the river from Niles, followed by a family of North 
Carolinians who had sojourned in Indiana. ^° The 
same year saw the beginning on Portage Prairie, from 
Wayne County, Indiana ;^^ at Berrien Springs on Wolf's 



65. 


Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 514. 


66. 


Ibid., II, 493; VI, 424. 


67. 


Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 22-23. 


68. 


Ibid., 142. 


69. 


Ibid., 141. 


70. 


Ibid., 167-168. 


71. 


Ibid., 208. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 265 

Prairie, from North Carolina;'- and in 1828-29 at St. 
Joseph, from Ohio, New Hampshire and New York." 
The importance of the site of St. Joseph as a stra- 
tegic and commercial point was recognized early both 
by the French and the Americans. It had a position 
at the mouth of one of the most important rivers of 
southern Michigan and on elevated ground that added 
to its security, healthfulness and beauty. '^* It appears 
that La Salle and his party explored the lower part of 
this river in 1679, and that shortly afterwards the 
Jesuits foimded at its mouth a mission and built a 
fort there. ^^ When the American Government began 
to see the need of a fort on Lake Michigan its com- 
missioners chose the site of St. Joseph, but the opposi- 
tion of the Indians, with whom at that time no treaty 
of cession had been made, led the Government to 
decide instead upon the site of Chicago, where in 1804 
it built Fort Dearborn. "^^ In 1870 William Burnett, a 
trader, native to New Jersey, established his post at 
the site of the old French mission, and in his day there 
seem to have been many French-Canadians there." 

72. Ibid., 198; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 120. 

73. CooVidge, History of Berrien County, 171-172. 

74. It occupied a peninsula formed by the lake and river on the 

south side. On the point of the peninsula there was at 
the time of its first settlement about half an acre of 
cleared land, apparently made by the early mission, 
which was of advantage to its first American settlers. 
History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 315. 

75. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 121. 

76. Ibid., I, 122. It is probably a far reach to conclude from 

this, as has been done, that Michigan instead of Illinois 
might have had the great metropolis of the Middle West; 
yet the suggestion is a hint of the possibilities in the 
very humblest beginnings of early settlement. 

77. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 19, 171-172. 



266 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Extracts from the account books of Burnett, as quoted 
in the History of Berrien a?id Van Bure^i Counties, "^^ 
appear to show the place to have had much of the 
nature of a true settlement. But the first strong im- 
pulse to American settlement came from Calvin Bri- 
tain, a native of Jefferson County, New York, who 
came to Michigan in 1827 and engaged in teaching at 
Carey Mission/^ He came to the site of St. Joseph 
in 1829, the year in which McCoy left the mission, 
and a little later laid out the village. His strong in- 
fluence was exercised through a long period in that 
commimity, with the result that many settlers were 
attracted from his native county in New York.^° 

The years from 1827 to 1829 mark the first really 
active settlement in the southwestern coimties. Sec- 
tions were surveyed there from 1827 forward, and sales 
began in those counties in 1829.^^ In that year a large 
number of counties were established in the southwest; 
the counties of Cass and St. Joseph were organized, 
and local government was established on the township 
system in Cass, St. Joseph and Berrien. ^^ Each of 
these counties had received at several points their first 
settlers. There is abundant testimony as to this. 

78. The originals are now in the Burton Hbrary at Detroit. 

79. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 171-172; History of 

Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 312. 

80. Michigan Biographies, 123. He was a member of the Ter- 

ritorial legislature from 1832 to 1835; a member of the 
constitutional conventions of 1836 and 1850; a State 
senator from 1835 to 1837; a representative in the State 
legislature in 1847, 1850 and 1851; and lieutenant gov- 
ernor in 1852. 

81. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 179; II, 376; XVIII, 513; Coolidge, 

History of Berrien County, 30. 

82. Territorial Laws, II, 735, 744, 786. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 267 

"One fact speaks more than a volume of descrip- 
tion and reasoning, (says the editor of the Northwestern 
Journal December 2, 1829). Mr. Savary left this city 
last spring with his wife, two children, one hired man 
and a team of horses. He proceeded to Pigeon Prairie, 
(St. Joseph County), put up a block house, fenced in a 
field of 75 acres, which he planted with corn, from 
which he has gathered a crop of 3,000 bushels, and 
another field of 29 acres which he has sowed with 
wheat. With the proceeds of part of the corn and of 
his live stock he has paid the first cost of the land and 
all his expenses, and has money in his pocket. He has 
also, remaining, nearly 100 hogs, and 2,000 bushels of 
corn." About a month later the editor returns to the 
theme: "We adverted some time since in general terms 
to what would be deemed by a New England farmer, 
the miraculous results accomplished by Mr. Savary 
and one laborer. We now are able to add that the 
statement we then made was, to say the least, a very 
moderate one. In addition to the proceeds of his 
crops, amounting at a low estimate to more than one 
thousand dollars, his improvements have added one 
thousand dollars to the value of his land. And this 
in the brief interval between the first of March and 
the first of November. In all this he has not done 
more than others in that region." With such a glow- 
ing and apparently disinterested statement before 
prospective settlers the editor hardly needed to urge 
"at least an exploring tour to the region of the St. 
Joseph. "^^ 

83. January 13, 1829. See also editorials in the same paper for 
March 3 and July 7, 1830, and the Detroit Free Press for 



268 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

In the two eastern counties of Hillsdale and Branch, 
settlement was barely beginning in 1829. In Hillsdale 
Captain Moses Allen settled upon the prairie which 
took his name, where he preempted land in 1827. He 
had been a captain in the War of 1812 and had settled 
after the war at Wyandotte in Wayne County, Mich- 
igan. ^^ He is said to have accompanied the surveyors 
of the Chicago Road in 1825, and in the following year 
to have gone with a prospecting party through the 
entire length of the St. Joseph Valley. In 1827 he 
brought his family and goods to the prairie of his 
choice. '^^ This was then the only settlement between 
Tecumseh and White Pigeon and it became a nucleus for 
further settlement. When the lands of the county 
came into the market in 1829 five puixhasers bought 
four hundred and eighty acres there in that year.^*^ 
On the representation of Captain Allen, Beniah Jones 
came to Allen's Prairie in 1829, and choosing a site 
for a village at the junction of the Chicago Road with 
the St. Joseph River became the founder of Jones- 
ville,^^ which for a long time was one of the most noted 
stations on that thoroughfare. 

In Branch County the first settlement was made, not 
from the East, but from Ohio.^^ The choice of a loca- 



83. Con. September 22, 1831, the latter quoting extracts from a 

letter of a St. Joseph farmer showing the superior value 
of the St. Joseph lands for wheat raising over those on 
the Erie Canal, despite the greater distance from the 
eastern market. 

84. History of Hillsdale County (1879), 35. 

85. ^Ihid., 35. 

86. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 27. 

87. Ihid., 60; History of Hillsdale County (1879), 36. 

88. Mich. Hist. Colls., XII, 400. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 209 

tion fell naturally upon prairie land, and the name of 
the settler, Jabez Bronson, soon attaching to the 
prairie, still remains in the southwestern township of 
Bronson. This settlement was made in 1828.^^ The 
previous year Bronson had raised a crop of corn on 
White Pigeon Prairie in Cass Count}^^" and it is curi- 
ous that with such early knowledge of that region he 
should have moved farther east. No sufficient reason, 
apparently, has been assigned; none can be formd in 
his original occupation as a shipwright,-'^ nor was he 
of the hunter type of pioneer wishing to get away 
from associates, for he located on the Chicago Road 
where his log cabin early became known as "Bron- 
son's hotel.'"-'- In the winter of 1829-30 there were 
a half dozen families on the prairie, which became the 
nucleus of Bronson village. ^^ 

The logical choice for the first settlers in Branch 
County would seem to have been the prairie about the 
site of Coldwater. This lay eastward from Bronson 
Prairie, also on the Chicago Road, and would meet 
the first eastern immigration coming to the county. 
But the first settlement from that direction was not 
made there, and a reason appears apart from the fact 
of Bronson' s approach from the west and the attrac- 
tion which his vicinity might have for newcomers. On 
Coldwater Prairie, Indians were in possession of a large 
reservation made by the Chicago treaty of 1821.'-'^ 

89. 76^Vi., VI, 217; XVIII, 609. 

90. Collin, History of Branch County, 41. 

91. Ibid., 41. He seems to have come from Connecticut. 

92. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 218. 

93. Collin, History of Branch County, 41. 

94. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 

Part 2, p. 704. 



270 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Several hundred Indians were gathered there, and 
though this land was ceded to the Government in 
1827, it was a considerable time before they were re- 
moved. ^^ They were on the whole friendly, but their 
selfishness, vagrancy, drunkenness, and thieving, made 
them undesirable neighbors.^'' A settlement was made 
on Cocoosh Prairie at the extreme north of the county 
in 1829.97 

By the year 1830 the older settlements of this section 
had gained considerable strength. Of the younger 
counties. Branch had more settlers than Hillsdale, but 
these probably did not number more than a hundred. ^^ 
In the national census for 1830 the population of Branch 
fails to appear independently; it is included in that of 
the township of Green, a large township comprising in 
addition to Branch the counties of Calhoun and Eaton 
and "all the country lying north of the county of 
Eaton ;"99 but the population of Green Township to- 
gether with that of Flowerfield Township in St. Joseph 
Cotmty with which it was included, numbered only one 
hundred and ten people. -^^^ The population of the re- 
raaining area within the present limits of St. Joseph 
County was distributed between the two large equal 
townships of White Pigeon and Sherman ;^°^ to the 

95. Ibid., 718; Collin, History of Branch County, 50. 

96. Collin, History of Branch County, 26, 50. 

97. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 218, 219, 238; XVIII, 609. 

98. In an article in the Detroit Journal and Michigan Adver- 

tiser for May 2, 1832, signed, "An inhabitant of Branch," 
the population of the county is estimated at about fifty 
families. 

99. Collin, History of Branch County, 28; Territorial Laws, 

II, 787. 

100. U. S. Census (1830), 153. 

101. Territorial Laws, II, 786-787. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 271 

westernmost of these was credited six hundred and 
seven people, to the eastern two hundred and five. 
Thus White Pigeon was the center of a county popula- 
tion of over eight hundred people. Cass County had 
a total population of more than nine hundred, who 
were distributed about equally in four townships. ^°^ 
That of the middle-western townships of Pokagon and 
LaGrange was slightly more than half, and this to- 
gether with their smaller size points to the fact that 
the bulk of the population of the county was gather- 
ed about Pokagon and La Grange prairies. Berrien 
Coimty appears in the census as the township of 
Niles^*^^ with a population of about three hundred, 
which was mainly within a short radius of Carey 
Mission. 

From 1830 onward population increased steadily 
until it was checked by the cholera epidemic^ °^ and 
fear of the Black Hawk War in 1832. In this period 
the two movements of population to southwestern 
Michigan blended and began to push up into Kalama- 
zoo and Calhoun counties. It was a marked recogni- 
tion of the strength of the new impulse to immigra- 
tion that a new land office was established at White 
Pigeon in 1831 ;^°^ recognition of the new tide of settlers 
to the Kalamazoo Valley is reflected in the removal of 
that office in 1834 from White Pigeon to Kalamazoo. 
The only serious break in the continuity of the stream 



102. Ihid., II, 786. 

103. Ibid., II, 786. 

104. Campbell, Outlines, 437-440. 

105. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 513. 



272 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of immigration came in 1832, with effects that were 
felt in the section for a year or more.-^°'^ 

The choice of White Pigeon as the place for the new 
land office indicates the central position it held in this 
early settlement of the southwestern counties. The 
village had been laid out in 1830.^°^ Its importance is 
reflected in the words of the traveler Hoffman who 
was there in the winter of 1833-34, who says, "At 
White Pigeon, where I foimd quite a pretty village of 
four years growth, I seemed in getting upon the post 
route from Detroit to Chicago, to get back once more 
to an old country. "^°^ The impression was doubtless 
heightened by his recent experience — he had come 
west over the Territorial Road and had just traveled 
over fourteen miles direct from Prairie Ronde in Kala- 
mazoo County without seeing "the sign of a habita- 
tion" until he approached White Pigeon Prairie; but 
in conveying the idea of a well settled locality which 
had an aspect of permanence his words were probably 
justified. In that year the Michigan Statesman and St. 
Joseph Chronicle is mentioned as having been received 
at Detroit from White Pigeon. ^°^ In 1831, the year 
the land office was opened there, the population of the 
village was estimated by the Detroit Journal and 
Michigan Advertiser (June 15) at about six hundred 
people. The presence of three sawmills and two 



106. Collin, History of Branch County, 29-30; Glover, History of 

Cass County, 103 ; Reynolds, History of Hillsdale County, 
27; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 498. 

107. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 515. 

108. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 219. 

109. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, Nov. 27, 1833. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 273 

gristmills at that date bespeaks considerable activity 
in building and agriculture. ^^° 

Other St. Joseph villages platted at this time were 
Cehterville, Mottville and Constantine. Slight begin- 
nings had been made at Three Rivers and Burr Oak. 
Centerville was platted (1831) on Nottawa-sepe 
prairie, one of the largest and most fertile in the south- 
west. A piece of land about one-half a township in 
area was reserved in 1821 to the Potawatomi Indians, ^^^ 
which was not open to settlement until two years after 
the Indian treaty of 1833;^^- but south of the reserva- 
tion a line of settlements began to form as early as 
1828-29; one of these was Centerville. These settle- 
ments were the first that were made in the northern 
part of the county. ^^^ Among the first people to settle 
here were Virginians, of whom the pioneer records make 
a point of saying that the traditional Virginian hospi- 
tality, freely extended, made the way easier for later 
comers.""* In the year of the founding of Centerville 
there came to the vicinity a little colony of thirty- 
two people from Ohio, led by a native of Vermont."^ 
The prevailing sources of the population— Vermont, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania 

110. This issue contains a very full description of the condition 

of settlement there at that date, emphasizing the ad- 
vantages for emigrants. A lack of good mechanics is 
mentioned, all turning farmers as soon as they arrive. 
See also the same paper for July 27, 1831, and June 15, 
1832. 

111. Bureau of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, 

Part 2, p. 704. 

112. Ibid., 718. 

113. Mich. Hist. Colls., 11, 489. 

114. Ibid., VI, 424. 

115. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 155. 

35 



274 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

and Ohio — show the blending of the two movements 
from the East and from below Michigan."'' 

In contrast with these prairie villages, Mottville and 
Constantine represent the sawmill type of village. 
The former was chosen as a mill site in 1827 by a 
settler from Crawford County, Ohio; its early settlers 
were largely Ohioans."'^ Constantine was platted in 
1831 at the junction of the St. Joseph with Fawn 
River at which time three families had gathered there 
from Ohio and Pennsylvania."^ The first gristmill in 
the county to run by water was built there in 1830."^ 
From the same sources came the first settlers of Three 
Rivers, a site chosen also for its water power, though 
no village was laid out rmtil 1836.^^° A considerable 
immigration to the burr-oak plains which have given 
the name to the village of Burr Oak took place in 
1833.121. 

Cass Comity shared with St. Joseph in rapidity of 
settlement, but there was in the former, in this period, 
a lesser tendency to village formation. In 1831 Ed- 
wardsburg was laid out on Beardsley's Prairie, near 
the junction of the St. Joseph River with the Chicago 
Road where a settlement had been begun in 1826. 
With three stages weekly running through that point^^^ 
it had apparently superior advantages for concentrat- 
ing population, and the progress of township organiza- 

116. Ibid., 156. 

117. Ibid., 86, 137, 212. 

118. Ibid., 116. 

119. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 514. 

120. History of St. Joseph County (W7), 137, 138, 140; Clark, 

Gazetteer of Michigan, 488. 

121. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 181. 

122. Glover, History of Cass County, 121, 170. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 275 

tion reflects rapid rural growth there. ^^^ The only 
other village founded in the county in this period was 
Cassopolis, started as a result of a struggle among 
several neighboring settlements for possession of the 
county seat. Although there was not a settler at Cass- 
opolis when the village was platted in 1831,^-'^ this 
point was the geographical center of the county, a 
fact which a local lawyer had the foresight to deter- 
mine; whereupon he purchased sufficient land to cover 
the site of a village and succeeded in having the county 
seat removed thither from Geneva where the Terri- 
torial legislature had located it when the county was 
organized.^-'' Cassopolis was thus distinctly a county 
seat hamlet, and though its growth was very slow the 
presence of the county seat reacted immediately upon 
neighboring rural settlement. 

In Berrien County, villages were platted at several 
important points, all on the St. Joseph River. Re- 
ference has been made to the founding of Niles in 1829; 
in 1831, the same year with the separate organization of 
Berrien County, were laid out the villages of Berrien 
Springs and St. Joseph. ^^''' These villages were on the 
only considerable open spaces between Bertrand and 
the mouth of the river. Berrien Springs was on Wolf's 
Prairie; in the year in which the village was platted a 
sawmill was built there, and the year immediately 

123. Territorial Laws, III, 997, 1276. 

124. Glover, History of Cass County, 145. 

125. Ibid., 143-144. 

126. CooMdge, History of Berrien County, 111, 199. The name of 

Berrien Springs reflects a physical feature — sulphur and 
other mineral springs situated on the east bank of the 
St. Joseph River. History of Berrien and Van Buren 
Counties (1880), 280. 



276 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

following witnessed gradual inctirsions into the dense 
forest which surrounded the edges of the prairie.^" 
At St. Joseph, which was laid out and fostered by the 
Carey Mission teacher, Calvin Britain, village lots sold 
rapidly and settlement flourished. ^-^ Thither the 
county seat was removed from Niles in 1832, but in 
1837 it was transferred to the more central position of 
Berrien Springs. -^^^ St. Joseph appears to have had 
about a score of families and some twenty dwellings in 
1834.^^° A steam sawmill was in operation and two 
small steamboats were running on the river, the latter 
almost indispensable owing to the very bad condition 
of the roads. -^^^ The Detroit Free Press of October 11, 
1832, prophesies for Newburyport (the original name of 
St. Joseph) great commercial importance as a port for 
southwestern Michigan, comparing its relations with 
those of Cincinnati to the Miami country. Northern 
Indiana seems to have looked to St. Joseph as a natural 
outlet for its products, if we may judge from the re- 
port of a public meeting at St. Joseph in 1832 to peti- 
tion Congress for a harbor appropriation.^^- 

127. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 198, 202. 

128. Ihid., 172. 

129. Ibid., 31. It was moved back to St. Joseph in 1894. Ibid., 

199. 

130. The History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 

p. 316, credits the village with about twenty-five 
dwellings at the time it was platted in 1831. 

131. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 176. 

132. Detroit Free Press, Jan. 19, 1832. Congress had appro- 

priated $5000 in 1831 for a lighthouse at the mouth of 
the river, and proposals for its building appear in the 
Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for April 27, 
1831. See also the same paper for March 30 of that year. 
For an account of the earliest steamboats on the river 
see History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 
281. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 277 

Between St. Joseph and Berrien Springs perhaps half 
a dozen famihes had settled by 1834, at various points in 
slight openings along the river. These river pioneers 
seem to have been mainly boatmen, who worked on 
the river boats while awaiting returns from their 
crops. ^^^ Northward from St. Joseph up the Paw Paw 
river above the present Coloma, a shingle-mill settle- 
ment started in 1833 or 1834, promoted by New York- 
ers, to supply the market at St. Joseph. ^^'^ 

In some respects the most pretentious village project 
of the section in this period was that at Bertrand, be- 
low Niles, resembling somewhat the experiment made 
a little earlier at Auburn in Oakland County. This 
was a speculative venture on a large scale , initiated in 
1833 by a joint stock association of persons from New 
York and Indiana, together with the French trader 
Joseph Bertrand. The author and chief promoter of 
the project was a surveyor on the Chicago Road, and 
it was probably his work which was just nearing com- 
pletion in Berrien County that attracted his attention 
to its possibilities. This village of twelve hundred lots 
covered a plat nearly a mile square on Portage Prairie, 
at the point where it is crossed by the St. Joseph 
River. ^^^ The site was well chosen and the time was 
propitious, but the fatal and common mistake was 
made of holding the lots at- too high a figure, which 
caused settlers to favor Niles. ^^"^ 



133. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, 330. 

134. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 228. The settlement 

was known as "Shingle Diggings." It appears to have 
decHned after 1838, due it is said to the exhaustion of 
material for shingles. History of Berrien and Van Buren 
Counties (1880), 340-341. 

135. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 206. 

136. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 269. 



278 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

There was scarcely any settlement away from the 
main stream of the St. Joseph by 1834, except in a few 
cases where mill privileges were desired. In 1833 a 
settler from Vermont came to the site of the village of 
Buchanan to take advantage of the water power, and 
several mills were built near by a little later. ^^^ From 
there westward to the site of New Buffalo extended a 
large forest of valuable timber lands that were taken 
up largely by mill proprietors living in other parts of 
the county. The start at New Buffalo in 1834 appears 
to have been made largely by accident. The story is 
told of the wreck of a schooner which was driven 
ashore at the site of Michigan City. Its commander 
(Wessel Whitaker) in going from there to St. Joseph 
on horseback along the beach noted the superior ad- 
vantages for a harbor at the mouth of Galien River 
and shortly afterward purchased the land there. The 
site is said to have been visited by many the first year, 
but the tide soon turned. ^•'^'^ 

It was not until 1834 that the movement of popula- 
tion from the East along the Chicago Road began to 
be felt to any great extent in Berrien. '^^^ In that year 
the county had a population of 1,787,"° distributed in 
fovir townships."^ 

The same year which saw so many villages laid out 
in the southwestern counties witnessed the platting of 
Branch, the first village in Branch Cormty. The 

137. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 213. 

138. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 193; History of Berrien and Van 

Btiren Counties (1880), 271. 

139. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 20, 26. 

140. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

141. Territorial Laws, II, 786; III, 1249, 1276. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 279 

founding of this village was similar to that of Cass- 
opolis. In 1831, two years before the county was 
organized, the question of the probable location of the 
county seat occurred to a native of Connecticut, who 
turned it to his advantage promptly. Having de- 
termined the geographical center of the county, he 
purchased a tract covering three-quarters of a square 
mile, platted a village upon it, and was successful in 
securing for his village the coveted political importance 
of the county seat.-^"*- The site had some natural ad- 
vantages aside from its central position in the county. 
Though off the Chicago Road, it was situated pleasant- 
ly on high ground which rose from the Coldwater River ; 
the result was that village lots and the neighboring 
farm land were bought up quickly, and a sawmill and 
a gristmill were started."^ These mills came to be 
widely patronized and attracted much attention to 
Branch village; but a struggle for the county seat 
was at once precipitated by settlers who were interested 
in the rival village of Coldwater, platted a year later 
than Branch. ^'^'^ 

The effect of the Chicago Road in concentrating 
population was strengthened no doubt by the fact that 
its course lay through some of the choicest open lands 
of the county. ■^•^^ Along this highway lay Coldwater, 
Snow, and Bronson prairies. On Snow Prairie three 
miles east of Bronson was one of the oldest settlements 



142. Collin, History of Branch County, 52-53. 

143. Ihid., 51, 53, 54. 

144. Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 219, 239; History of Branch County 

(1879), 114. 

145. Collin, History of Branch County, 74-75. 



280 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

in the county. ^^"^ On the whole, the data incHnes one 
to beheve that the prairies were preferred to the 
openings. ^'^^ In Qnincy Township where the Chicago 
Road passed through an opening which had heavy 
timber within a few miles on each side, it was 1835 
before land was entered beyond the openings; but set- 
tlement even in the open strip was slow — only four 
families had settled there by 1834.^^^ 

The position of the Chicago Road through the cen- 
tral prairies and openings and the location of the first 
settlements and of the county seat there, account 
partly for the slowness with which settlement acknowl- 
edged the surpassing natural advantages in the north- 
ern part of Branch County. The settlement of that 
part of the county appears to have been more closely 
connected with Calhoun and Jackson counties than 
with the rest of Branch. This connection was partly 
topographical; for example, the northern tier of sec- 
tions at the northwest corner was a part of Dry Prairie 
in Calhoim County, which had a number of settlers on 
the Calhoun side of the boundary in 1832. The early 
settlement of Sherwood Township in Branch County 
was an expansion of this colony, ^^^ though its first set- 
tler, after whom the township was named, is said to 
have come directly from Sherwood Forest in England. ^^° 
One of the reasons for a close relation with the northern 



146. Ihid., 45. 

147. See the Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser for June 1, 

1831, and June 1, 1832. 

148. Collin, History of Branch County, 65, 66; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., VI, 241. 

149. Collin, History of Branch County, 82. 

150. Ibid., 81. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 281 

counties lay in the ease of communication with them. 
Settlers coming west over the Territorial Road could 
reach Girard Township from Marshall over the road 
established to connect the Temtorial and Chicago 
roads at Marshall and Coldwater.^^^ Branch County 
was reached from the north at a point just west of 
Girard by the Washtenaw Trail, which ran from Jack- 
son to White Pigeon, and over which a road was laid 
out in 1834.^^- The first land entered to the west of 
Girard was bought in Union Township in 1831 by the 
founder of the village of Jackson; the first immigra- 
tion to that township came from Calhoun County. ^°^ 
The dense forest there was for some years a retarding 
influence, except in the southwestern corner. The 
earliest settlements were of the sawmill type, forming 
two early centers of influence, at the junction of the 
Cold water River with Hog Creek and with the St. 
Joseph River. At these points — the sites of Hodunk 
and Union City — the first settlements were made in 
1833, and their mills were widely patronized. ^^* The 
northern part of the comity received separate town- 
ship organization in 1834 tmder the name of the oldest 
settlement — Girard . ^^^ 

The southern and especially the southeastern parts 
of the county, having the heaviest forest, were the 
most backward. Settlement was initiated there about 
1832 by a noteworthy venture from Ohio. The leader 
was the Right Reverend Philander Chase, bishop of 

151. Ibid., IS. 

152. Ibid., 78. 

153. Ibid., 79. 

154. Collin, History of Branch County, 78, 80. 

155. Territorial Laivs, III, 1276. 



282 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Ohio, an uncle of the well known Ohio statesman of 
the name.^^'' Bishop Chase was a native of Cornish, 
New Hampshire, and a graduate of Dartmouth. A man 
of high ideals and of missionary spirit, he had come 
west at an early day, and had been one of the founders 
of Itenyon College, Ohio, of which he was for many 
years president. As bishop of Ohio, a disagreement 
with his constituency caused him to look for a field of 
work where his ideals could have a better chance. He 
purposed to seek appointment to the bishopric of 
Michigan and there to found a new college ; his son had 
settled on Prairie Ronde, in Kalamazoo County, and it 
is probable that he also intended to try his fortunes 
there, but while on the way for a visit his attention 
was arrested by the lands of Branch County. He had 
taken, instead of the southern route by way of Fort 
Wayne, the eastern route by way of Monroe, 
Adrian and the Chicago Road, the route by which 
the eastern counties gained most of their southern 
immigration. Following advice which he had received 
by the way, he branched ofi: from the Chicago Road 
at Bronson Prairie, and took the Indian trail leading 
along the banks of Prairie River. The bishop's satis- 
faction with the place of his choice is shown by the 
name of Gilead which he gave to the picturesque lake- 
let of that region and to the neighboring prairie. 
Though he was disappointed in his hope of obtaining 
the bishopric of Michigan and as a consequence 
abandoned the idea of founding a college in Michigan, 
his temporary residence at Gilead aided the begin- 

156. Collin, History of Branch County, 69-73; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
VI, 221. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 283 

ning of settlement in the southern part of the county. 
Many settlers came in from Marion County, Ohio; 
but the source most frequently mentioned in histories 
of the cotmty is Onondaga Cotmty, New York. In 
1834 Branch County had a population of seven hun- 
dred and sixty-four people, distributed in three town- 
ships.^" 

Progress in the settlement of Hillsdale County be- 
tween the years 1830 and 1834 was somewhat less than 
in Branch County. The village of Jonesville, which 
was laid out in 1831 and made the county seat, was still 
the sole village in the county ^^^ and it was not until 1834 
that the first stock of goods was put on sale there. ^^^ 
Probably the log schoolhouse, twelve by fourteen 
feet, which was then built, proved for some time a 
sufficient educational equipment. Almost all the land 
that was bought in the county lay along the Chicago 
Road, excepting a little in the valley of Bean Creek 
where entries were first made in 1833."° Considering 
the small amount of land that was bought in the county 
it seems hardly probable that the total population had 
reached five hundred people. The population of the 
county is not given separately in the Territorial census, 
but it is probably included in the figures which appear 
for Lenawee, to which it was attached for judicial pur- 

157. Blois, Gazetteer, 151; Territorial Laws, III, 949, 1276. 

158. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 178. 

159. Reynolds, History of Hillsdale Cotmty, 31 ; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

I. 179. 

160. Historical and Biographical Record of Lenawee County, II, 

23; Hogaboam, Bean Creek Valley, 22, 27; Mich. Hist. 
Colls., 1, 178, 179. 



284 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

poses until its organization in 1835. Until then the 
whole county comprised but one township. ^"^^ 

From 1834 to 1837 this section had a large share in 
the rapid growth of the Territory. Nowhere was the 
increase of settlement more pronounced than in the 
counties of Hillsdale and Branch, where population 
had been the least in the section up to 1835. In 1837 
the population of either county equalled that of Ber- 
rien, while together they contained about one-third of 
all the people in the section. The population of St. 
Joseph, the most populous county, at the western end, 
exceeded that of Branch, the least populous, at the 
east, by a little over two thousand. From the point of 
view of population and of the section as a whole, set- 
tlement was at the close of the period quite equally 
distributed, but still slightly preponderant in the coun- 
ties of St. Joseph and Cass.^*^- 

The distribution of population within the counties 
at the close of the period, as shown by township organ- 
ization and by the census of 1837, accords with the 
general trend described for the earlier time, and was 
effected by the same agents. Hillsdale and Branch 
counties showed clearly the influence of the open 
comitry and the Chicago Road at the north. Both 
had small townships with comparatively large popula- 
tions. In Hillsdale, nearly the entire northern half 
of the county was divided into townships^*^^ six miles 

161. Territorial Laws, II, 787; III, 1367. 

162. The areas of these counties varied, but not enough to affect 

the purpose of this rough comparison. 

163. Township organization, 1835-37; Territorial Laws, III, 

1367; Session Laws (1835-36), 71; Ibid. (1837), 39, 40; 
Census of 1837, Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 285 

square, with an average population of four hundred 
people, while the southern townships, averaging double 
the size, had a population no greater. Very probably 
the township of Fayette, with its long north and south 
axis, had most of its residents in its northward exten- 
sion, in the openings near the Chicago Road and about 
the nascent village of Hillsdale — while Pittsford, in the 
southeast, undoubtedly owed much to the overflow 
from Lenawee County into its Bean Creek lands; for 
instance, between these two the township of Florida, 
covering two government townships but having no 
advantages in transportation, openings, or water power, 
to compensate for the difficulties of its heavy forest, 
contained, all told, only one hundred and fifty-six peo- 
ple, and the remaining southern township of Reading, 
west of Fayette, affords a similar example. In Branch 
County there was a more even distribution of small 
township areas, ^'^'^ but the population of those at the 
south, reflecting the influence of the Gilead settlement, 
was small. "A country of lakes, but little settled," 
reports the surveyor of the Southern Railroad in 
1837}^'^ The most populous townships were on the 
Chicago Road. 

The village population of these counties was slight. 
Jonesville was still the only important village center in 
Hillsdale County, but was one of the most important 

164 Township organization (1835-37); Session Laws (1835- 
36), 71, 72; Ibid., (1837), 42, 44; Census of 1837: 
Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

165. Michigan House Documents, No. 9 (A), p. 5. He referred in 
particular to settlement on the line between Hog Creek 
and the center of Sherman Township in St. Joseph 
County, and no doubt was speaking comparatively with 
the eastern counties. 



286 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

points on the Chicago Road. Four mail routes cen- 
tered there; from Detroit by the Chicago Road, from 
Toledo (then called Maumee) by way of Canandaigua 
in Lenawee County, from Adrian by way of RoUin, and 
from Marshall by way of Homer. For a very wide 
area of country it was a center for milling as well as 
for mail.^®^ To judge from the number of its stores, 
however, it appears not to have been very much larger 
than Saline or Dexter, in Washtenaw. ^'^'^ Its position 
at some distance from the center of the comity caused,- 
as in the case of Tecumseh, a forfeit of the cou.nty 
seat, which was removed to the central village of 
Hillsdale.i*^^ 

Hillsdale village, like Cassopolis and Branch, was a 
speculative county-seat venture. Though platted in 
1835, there appears to have been little there at the close 
of this period besides "bushes and scenery. "^*^^ The 
first store, mill, and public inn, appear not to have been 
built until 1838,^^° when a new impulse came, ap- 
parently, from the selection of the village for a station 

166. Its first gristmill was completed in 1835. History of Hills- 

dale County (Everts), p. 39, and another in process of 
building is reported by Blois (1838) in his Gazetteer, p. 
305. 

167. Blois credits it with two groceries and six dry-goods stores. 

Gazetteer, 305. 

168. Session Laws (1839), 65; (1840), 148; (1843), 10. The 

possession of the county seat since 1830 added not a little 
to the prestige of Jonesville. 

169. The money for the project appears to have been furnished 

by parties in Utica, New York, and the village to have 
been platted by the "Hillsdale Company." History oj 
Hillsdale County (1879), 94. A house is said to have 
been built on the site by a settler in 1834. 

170. History oj Hillsdale County (1879), 95. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 287 

on the Southern Railroad ;^'^^ in making that point the 
terminal of the road it was thought that "a better point 
probably could not have been selected having in view 
the future interests of the State, being situated on the 
direct route to Branch, Coldwater, etc., possessing the 
advantage of good roads at all times, and a central 
location for business. "^'^- Blois mentions its situation 
on the State road from Adrian, and its good water 
power on a branch of the St. Joseph. ^"^ 

In Branch County there appears to have been a 
somewhat stronger tendency to concentrate population 
than in Hillsdale ; embryonic villages developed at f our 
or five points, the most noteworthy being Coldwater 
and Branch. Coldwater shared in the rapid settle- 
ment induced by the rich lands of Coldwater Prairie, 
which lay directly on the Chicago Road. Surrounding 
this center, an area of six miles square had gathered by 
1837 nearly one-fourth of the population of the 
county. ^'^^ The settlement of the village had been 
augmented especially by the arrival in 1835 of a con- 
siderable colony, including enterprising eastern busi- 
ness men.^"^ By 1837 it had quite eclipsed the rival 
village of Branch and was increasing its efforts to de- 

171. The years immediately following are marked by renewed 

efforts to secure the county seat and the erection of a 
new hotel. When the railroad reached Hillsdale, in 
1843, the county seat was located there, and the Hills- 
dale County Gazette, started at Jonesville in 1839, fol- 
lowed the countv seat. History of Hillsdale County 
(1879), 45, 83, 95\ Session Laws (1843), 10. 

172. Michigan House Doctmients (1842), No. 3, p. 48. 

173. Blois, Gazetteer, 301. 

174. Population 960; population of the county, 4,096. Mich- 

igan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

175. History of Branch County (1879), 115. 



288 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

prive it of the county seat.^^^ The price of land was 
made low as an inducement to settlers, a newspaper 
was started by subscription of citizens to compete with 
the one established at Branch,^" and the village was 
incorporated. It is said that the new gristmill, of a 
better type than that at Branch, absorbed the former 
custom of the Branch mill and strengthened the power 
of the village to concentrate population about it.^^^ 

Branch was at its height in 1836-37 after which it 
rapidly declined and disappeared from the maps of the 
county; as one writer puts it, "It contained the seeds 
of death in its prosperity," which was alike true for 
many aspiring villages of this period in all parts of 
Michigan; we have seen a striking example in the 
village of Bertrand in Berrien County, where the high 
prices of village lots and neighboring lands drove capital 
and settlers to Niles. It was this policy of speculation 
in Branch, encouraged by a feeling of security in its 
more central position and the possession of the county 
seat, that was a chief influence in building up a rival at 
Coldwater.^^^ The county seat was removed in 1840.^^° 

176. See the reasons set forth for its removal in Michigan House 

Documents, 1841, No. 1, pp. 60-61. The population of 
the village is estimated at 800 or 1,000, as compared with 
150 for Branch. 

177. The Coldwater Observer; History of Branch County (1879), 

100. 

178. Collin, History of Branch County, 58; Blois mentions two 

sawmills but not the gristmill. Gazetteer, 266. 

179. Collin, History of Branch County, S3. 

180. Session Laws (1840), 56. See reasons for retaining county 

seat as presented in Michigan Joint Documents ,^ 1841, No. 
1, p. 58. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 289 

Blois credits Branch with only a few families in 1838.^^^ 
Another village center belonging to the Coldwater 
group and illustrating the enterprise of promoters to 
take advantage of a promising nucleus of population, 
was the village of Mason, which hoped apparently to 
profit by the name of the contemporary governor of 
Michigan. It was about a mile and a half from Cold- 
water on the Chicago Road, and of about two years 
growth. Blois mentions two stores in 1838;^^^ like 
Branch its life was early assimilated by Coldwater. 

Hardly to be included in this period was the original 
village nucleus of the future Union City, which like 
Branch, represents an attempt to foster a village away 
from the Chicago Road. It was platted in 1837 by a 
group of promoters operating from New York City 
whose chief reliance seems to have been the water 
power at the junction of the Coldwater and the St. 
Joseph. ^^^ It was presumably upon their information 

181. Gazetteer, 258. He places it three miles from Coldwater in 

the same township. The files of The Michigan Star, its 
newspaper, would if they could be found, probably illu- 
minate further, from the angle of Branch settlers, the 
causes of its decline. See History of Branch County 
(1879), 99. 

182. Blois, Gazetteer, 320. The vicinity of Quincy, which was 

without a village in 1837, received its first impulse to 
differentation from agricultural life by its choice as a 
station on the Southern Railroad in 1853, when it is said 
to have had about a dozen dwellings. History of Branch 
County (1879), 182. But the site was occupied in 1835 
by influential families originally from New Hampshire 
and Vermont. The village is said to have received its 
name from Quincy, Massachusetts, the home of an early 
settler. Ihid., 178; Collin, History of Branch County, 67. 

183. Collin, History of Branch County, 79. The advantages of 

the site appear to have been recognized in 1835 by the 
platting of the earlier village of Goodwinsville. History 
of Branch County (1879), 207. 
37 



290 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

that Blois confidently places the village "at the proper 
head of navigation of the St. Joseph;" he mentions a 
store, a sawmill and a few dwelling houses. ^^"^ 

In the comities of St. Joseph and Cass the earlier in- 
fluence of the Chicago Road was still predominant. It 
appears in the concentration of considerably more than 
two-thirds of the population of these cotmties along 
its course. A contributing influence of growing 
strength, the prairie village, is suggested by the large 
proportion of the population of each county in its 
southwestern corner. In the former this is the village 
of White Pigeon, in the latter, Edwardsburg. The 
least settled parts of each county were at the north, and 
township organization was the most backward in those 
portions of the northern parts which were adjoining.^^^ 

In the township of White Pigeon, which contained 
about twenty square miles, were gathered something 
less than nine hundred people, about two hundred less 
than were contained in the large township of Sherman, 
of nearly six times the area, immediately east — this 
despite its possession of Sturgis Prairie, which was as 
fertile and almost as large as that about the village of 
White Pigeon. Sturgis Prairie, if not the center of the 
population of Sherman Township, probably was com- 
paratively well peopled. "Sturgis and White Pigeon 

184. Gazetteer, 376. The population of the township (Sherwood), 

containing the village, was a Httle over 200. Michigan 
Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

185. Census of 1837 (for both counties), Michigan Legislative 

Manual (1838), 70, 73; township organization in St. 
Joseph County, 1835-37; Session Laws (1833-36), 75 
and Ibid. (1837), 40, 41; township organization for Cass 
County, 1835-37; Territorial Laws, III, 1368; Session 
Laws (1835-36), 72, and Ihid. (1837), 141. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 291 

prairies are highly cultivated," says Harriet Martineau, 
who passed there in 1836, "and look just like any 
other rich and perfectly level land."^^'' The postoffice 
of the township is mentioned by Blois as being on the 
northeastern border of the prairie, though he does not 
speak of a village of Sturgis.^" To White Pigeon he 
accredits five stores, and speaks of the surrounding 
prairie as "very densely populated." It is significant 
for the future industry of its vicinity that peppermint 
and beet-sugar should have been among its products 
as early as the close of this period, of the former of 
which it is said to furnish now a large part of the 
world's supply. ^^^ The mill village of Mottville, also 
on White Pigeon Prairie, at the junction of the Chi- 
cago Road with the St. Joseph River, had by the census 
of 1837 a population^^^ in its vicinity, taking equal 
areas, about half that surrounding White Pigeon; 
which accords with Blois' mention of two stores in the 
village. ^^° 

A little way up the St. Joseph from Mottville, the 
township of Constantine showed a population in 1837 
somewhat less than that of White Pigeon Township, 
though its area was about a third greater. But the 
village of Constantine was a very vigorous rival of 
White Pigeon ;^^^ it is significant that in his Gazetteer 

186. Society in America, I, 326. 

187. Gazetteer, 365. 

188. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 515. An act of 1839 (Session 

Laws, 1839, 156) authorized a loan of $5,000 to the 
White Pigeon Beet Sugar Company. See also Mich. 
Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 130. 

189. Population of the township of Mottville, 497; of White 

Pigeon, 872. 

190. Gazetteer, 329. 

191. Ibid., 267. 



292 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Blois gives nearly three times the space to a description 
of Constantine: "Much capital and enterprise," he 
says, "are enlisted in its improvement." A weekly 
paper was published, a symbol of great prosperity in a 
pioneer village, which reports at this time, "Constan- 
tine is one of the most flourishing villages in the 
county, and does the greatest amount of business." 
A steamboat is said to have plied between it and 
Lake Michigan, and numbers of "keel boats" were 
used to carry on trade with all points along the river. 
Blois reports that a railroad was chartered to connect 
the village with Niles. It quite overshadowed Mott- 
ville directly below it on the river and the Chicago 
Road. In a Michigan House Document of 1837 Con- 
stantine is reported, apparently from direct observa- 
tion, as probably much larger than the three villages 
of Lockport, Geneva and Cassopolis combined. ^^" Its 
success appears to have been due, apart from its ex- 
cellent physical advantages of water power, transpor- 
tation facilities, and fertile farming lands, to the great 
energy and practical wisdom of its inhabitants. 

Still farther up the river, about half way to Center- 
ville, the village of Three Rivers had made respectable 
progress since its platting in 1835 or 1836.^^^ It was 
closely associated in its activities with the village of 
Lockport across the river, with which later on it be- 
came united. It is said that this was practically the 
head of navigation for larger craft on the river and 

192. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 

193. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 417; History of St. Joseph 

County, 140. As platted in 1836 it appears to have 
included Lockport, yet Blois speaks (1838) of intentions 
to consolidate the two villages. Gazetteer, 313, 374. _^; 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 293 

that steamboats came up to that point. ^^^ The rela- 
tions of the two villages at this site speak well for the 
desirability of its advantages, and according to Blois 
considerable capital was being attracted to develop the 
water power. The comparatively large populations of 
the townships of Bucks and Nottawa, which in 1837 
extended to the center of the county, probably reflect 
the concentrating influence of Three Rivers and of the 
county-seat village of Centerville. The Detroit Jour- 
nal and Michigan Advertiser of Jime 18, 1836, reported 
this village to be in a very flourishing condition. How- 
ever, two stores seem to have been svifficient for its 
trade in 1838, and its importance as the county seat 
probably explains the location of a branch of the 
University of Michigan there instead of at White 
Pigeon. ^^^ Prairie River supplied power for a sawmill 
and flourmill, which made it a convenient center for 
milling over a large area. 

In Cass County the comparatively large populations 
for small areas in the townships of Ontwa, La Grange 
and Pokagon suggest the influence of the prairies. In 
the former, about Beardsley's Prairie and the village 
of Edwardsburg, had gathered over a thousand persons, 
all told, which was about four hundred less than on 
the equal area similarly situated in St, Joseph County 
about the villages of White Pigeon and Mottville.^^*^ 
Edwardsburg contained a population not quite equal- 
ling that of White Pigeon — to judge from its stores^ ^'^ — 
while it had in its own county no near rivals as had 

194. Mick. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 386-387. 

195. Blois, Gazetteer, 262. 

196. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

197. Blois, Gazetteer, 283. 



294 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

White Pigeon in Mottville and Constantine ; but it was 
near enough to feel the rivalry of Niles, for like White 
Pigeon it had no water power and hence lacked the 
attraction of mills. Its central reliance was the at- 
traction of the prairie and its position on the Chicago 
Road.i^s 

The settlement about the county-seat village of 
Cassopolis appears to have equalled that about Center- 
ville in St. Joseph County, despite its lack of water 
power. The village had three stores. The signifi- 
cance of its lack of water power for future growth is 
seen in the report given in 1837 by the surveyor of 
the Southern Railroad against Cassopolis as a station, 
that "people living on the line of the road would have 
to carry their wheat away to be floured and retrans- 
port it to the railroad before they could send it to 
market. "^^^ Quite as large as Cassopolis was the vil- 
lage of Whitman ville, about three miles distant on 
Dowagiac river, having four stores and a sawmill and 
flouring mill.-'^° 

West of Cassopolis about Pokagon Prairie there was 
a population of about five hundred, though apparently 
no village, while the population eastward about the 
Quaker settlement in Penn Township, though less, was 
larger than elsewhere in the immediate neighborhood. 
The village of Geneva was situated there, with two 
stores. '^°^ The least settled township was above Poka- 
gon, being the northwest corner township of Silver 
Creek which contained only about a hundred people. 

198. Ihid., 252. 

199. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 

200. Blois, Gazetteer, 381. 

201. Ihid., 289. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 295 

In the opposite corner of the county in Porter Town- 
ship, on the Chicago Road and near the village of 
Mottville, were over four hundred people, with a very 
small nucleus at Porter village.-*'"^ Somewhat larger 
was the village of Adamsville between Porter village 
and White Pigeon. ^°^ 

The distribution of population in Berrien County, 
as shown by the census of 1837, indicates the greatest 
density to have been at two points on the St. Joseph 
River — in the southeast about Niles and Bertrand, 
which was the region of Carey Mission, and at the 
mouth of the river in and around St. Joseph village. ^*^^ 

The failure of the speculative venture at Bertrand, 
owing to the high prices of land, has been alluded to; 
there were many contributing causes, among which not 
the least were the rivalry of Niles, the panic, and the 
severe epidemic of sickness in 1837-38. ^'^^ Blois esti- 
mates that the population was then about six him- 
dred.-^*^ The census showed 1,262 in the township, 
which apparently included the village. ^°'^ Niles pro- 
fited by the misfortunes of Bertrand, but it was from 

202. Blois, Gazetteer, 346. 

203. Ibid., 245. 

204. Census of 1837, in Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75; 

township organization, 1835-37; Territorial Laivs, III, 
1368; Session Laws (1835-36), 72; Ibid. (1837), 38, 44, 
141. 

205. It is said that in these years there were not enough well ones 

to nurse the sick, and that many became discouraged 
and left. History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties 
(1880), 229. 

206. Blois, Gazetteer, 255. There were six stores. 

207. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. For the early set- 

tlement of the township, see History of Berrien and Van 
Buren Counties (1880), 227-231. See also a sketch of 
the village in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 129. 



296 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the beginning a village of much enterprise. It secured 
a branch of the University, and it appears to have sup- 
ported a newspaper as early as 1835."°^ Speculators 
and transients of all sorts as well as settlers seem to 
have visited there. Harriet Martineau says that she 
could not learn the exact amount of population "prob- 
ably because the number is never the same two days 
together. "^^^ It had eclipsed Bertrand in permanent 
population by 1837,-^° and according to Blois was twice 
as large as its rival. ^^^ In the fertile farming country 
of the township containing it, the census records a few 
less than fifteen hundred people, which, for ecjual areas, 
seems to show that the rural population about Bert- 
rand was slightly greater than that around Niles.-^^ 

It is said that the first lands in the county to be ex- 
tensively exploited for agricultural purposes were those 
of Berrien Township, just above Niles.-^^ Its popula- 
tion was entirely rural at the close of this period, and 
for equal areas it was about the same as that of Niles 

208. The Niles Gazette and Advertiser. See for the early news- 

papers of Niles, the History of Berrien and Van Buren 
Counties (1880), 136-138. A newspaper celebrity of that 
day appears to have been the namesake of the village, 
namely the proprietor of Niles' Weekly Register, the well 
known Whig paper published in Baltimore, the favorite 
paper in the family of a prominent Virginian settler of 
Niles who bestowed the name of the village. 

209. Society in America, I, 326. 

210. Report of Surveyor of the Southern Railroad in Michigan 

House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 

211. Gazetteer, 2)33. 

212. For the early settlement of Niles Township, see the History 

of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 264. 

213. For their settlement to 1837, see History of Berrien and Van 

Buren Counties, 204-208, and Colidge, History of Berrien 
County (1880), 196. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 297 

and Bertrand. Its market and supply depot was just 
to the west on the St. Joseph at Berrien Springs, 
where surrounding farms belonged physiographically to 
Berrien Township rather than to Oronoko,^^'' which was 
in the main a region of dense forest. Apparently it 
was the central position of Berrien Springs on the river 
between St. Joseph and Niles that gained for it the 
county seat in 1837,^^^ as it contained then only about 
one hundred people. -^*^ 

The possession of the county seat from 1832 to 1837 
doubtless added something to the attractiveness of St. 
Joseph for settlers and capital , but the real cause of 
its very rapid growth in wealth and population in the 
last years of this period was its intrinsic advantages 
for trade and commerce. According to Blois, it 
doubled its population in 1836-37, which he estimates 
at between twelve and fifteen himdred;^^^ though the 
population of St. Joseph Township as given in the 
census of 1837 was but 599.-^^ There, also, saguine ex- 
pectations are said to have led to speculative prices for 
village lots and neighboring land, diverting a large 
number of settlers and a large amount of capital to 
other places. ^^^ It was not really imtil after the close 
of this period that traffic on the river began to assume 
proportions beyond the capacity of keel boats, for 

214. The population of Oronoko, which extended from east of 

the St. Joseph across the county to Lake Michigan, was 
in 1837, 248. 

215. Session Laws (1837), 16. 

216. Gazetteer, 254. 

217. Ibid., 369. 

218. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. 

219. History of Berrien and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 317. 



298 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

while three steamboats were owned there and sought 
employment, the shipping is reported by Blois as com- 
paratively trifling. ^^° The financial crisis of 1837-38 
is said to have been especially disastrous to it, and 
hence to the growth of the village. ^^^ 

Its early promise, however, was to be worthily ful- 
filled within a decade. "^^ The first shipment of fruit, 
a small quantity, was made in 1839.^^'^ Blois mentions 
a national appropriation of $35,000 to improve the 
harbor; two thousand feet of wharf had been already 
built; a bridge was being built over the St. Joseph at a 
cost of $15,000, and the village was made the terminal 
of the Territorial Road and of the projected Central 
Railroad where stages and trains were to connect with 
steamboats for Chicago. ^"'^ But population was for 
some time confined very closely to the water-front, 
away from which was dense forest. The neighboring 
township of Benton made no returns either for the 

220. Gazetteer, 368. Coolidge says that sixty keel-boats were 

employed on the river by 1840. For the early river 
traffic s€e his History of Berrien County, 182-184. 

221. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 177. 

222. See Michigan Joint Documents (1847), No. 4, p. 25, for the 

amount of exports and imports at the port of St. Joseph 
from Sept. 1, 1845, to Sept. 1, 1846; among the exports — 
wheat, 263,6451 bu.; flour, 129,338 bbls.; lumber, 
1,500,000 ft.; among the imports — merchandise, 3,489,- 
604 lbs; merchandise and furniture, 2,787 bbls. 

223. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 315. The 

first shipment of peaches from Bainbridge Township 
(40 bu.) appears to have been made in 1843, grown from 
trees brought from Livingston County, New York. 
Ibid., 216. 

224. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8; Coolidge, 

History of Berrien County, 38. 




FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD 

(Sheldon's //is/. of Mich., 205) 

Father Richard, Sulpitian priest, was descended from the elo- 
quent Bishop Bossiiet of France. From 1798 to 18:^2 he was a 
strong influence especially among the French-Canadians in the 
settlement of Michigan Territory. He brought to Detroit the 
first printiiiK press used west of the Alleghanies. As Michigan's 
delegate to Congress in 1823 he was instrumental in securing 
let,Mshil ion authorizing the national turnpike between Detroit and 
('hicago later known as the Chicago Road. He sacrificed Ins life 
during the cliolera epidemic of 1832. in service to the plague 
.stricken inhabitants of Detroit. Seep. 11.") (n. Kil). 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 299 

census of 1837 or 1840, and had a population of only 
237 in 1845.225 

The few settlers along the river between St. Joseph 
and Berrien Springs in 1837 are apparently represented 
in the 175 given in the census for the forested town- 
ship of Royalton extending from the western boundary 
of Cass County to Lake Michigan. Blois mentions a 
village of Royalton, apparently about the size of Ber- 
rien Springs, three miles up the St. Joseph between 
these two points. ^'-^ In general, the lands along the 
river appear to have received actual settlers several 
years before the lands back from the river. "^ 

The attempt to build at New Buffalo a port which 
should rival St. Joseph had little success until very 
much later than this period. Blois credits New Buf- 
falo with about four hundred inhabitants in 1838 1"^ 
it is said that in the winter of 1841-42 (or 1842-43) it 
had but two resident families. ^^^ Its hope lay, at the 
beginning, in the capital and enterprise of the Virginia 
Land Company, which platted a large addition to the 
original village in 1837, but that was an inauspicious 
year. 2"^ The selection of the village for a terminal of 

225. Michigan Legislative Manual (1846), 43. The village of 

Benton Harbor was laid out in 1860 at the time of the 
building of the Benton Harbor Ship Canal to connect it 
with St. Joseph and the lake. History of Berrien and 
Van Buren Counties (1880), 190. 

226. Gazetteer, 354. 

227. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 237, 307. 

228. Gazetteer, 351. 

229. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 272; 

Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 223. 

230. For the disastrous effect of the financial crisis of that year 

upon Berrien County as a whole, see Coolidge, History of 
Berrien County, 27-28. 



300 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the Southern Railroad was a good advertisement, ^^^ 
and even before then the spirit of speculation had 
brought a number of enterprising settlers to the site 
in 1835-36, stimulated by the personal influence of 
Captain Whitaker, who had platted the village in 
1835.^^^ He is said to have come from Hamburg, in 
western New York, and to have interested a number 
of associates from that place. In 1836, it is said, 
seventy -nine lots in different parts of the village were 
valued at $29,520.^^^ In that year the village was 
incorporated and in the following year residents of 
LaPorte, Indiana, mainly natives of Virginia, brought 
their capital in aid of the project. -•'^'^ The site was 
similar to that of St. Joseph, being on the lake shore 
some twenty miles below that point, but it was not on 
high land, like that which made for the health and 
beauty of St. Joseph. The panic of 1837 brought its 
depressing effects, and it was not until the building of 
the railroads and the development of the back country 
that real growth there began. 

The effect of dense forest on settlement is well illus- 
trated by the scantiness of population between New 
Buffalo and the vicinity of Niles and Bertrand. The 
three townships of New Buffalo, Weesaw and Bu- 
chanan, covering that area, contained according to 
the census of 1837 less than five hundred people. 
Some twenty-seven families appear to be represented 
in the 172 people given for Buchanan Township^^^ of 

231. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, p. 8. 

232. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 125; II, 193; act to organize the village, 

Session Laws (1835-36), 184. 

233. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 272. 

234. Ibid., 272, 275 ; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 221, 225. 

235. Ibid., 177. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 301 

whom the large portion probably were in the neighbor- 
hood of the mill at the site of Buchanan. Apparently 
a village was not platted there, however, until 1842.-^'^ 
Westward from Buchanan extended the "Gali en woods" 
along the river of that name. The settlement of this 
tract was very slow until after 1850, as the lands gen- 
erally were not bought by farmers until part of the 
timber had been cut off. This was partly accom- 
plished by the mills, but the market for cord wood and 
lumber created by the building of the Central Railroad 
hastened the process of clearing.-" Much of the land 
in Weesaw Township seems originally to have been low 
and marshy, and the timbered land is said to have 
been mainly held by nonresidents until about 1850.^^^ 
The surveyor of the line of the Southern Railroad re- 
ported in 1837 that "the country from New Buffalo 
to St. Joseph on either the northern or southern route 
is generally of a low, moist, alluvial soil, densely for- 
ested and entirely unsettled except in the vicinity of 
Niles."-^^ 

Settlers came to this section by two different move- 
ments of immigration, and its early population is there- 
fore somewhat varied. The earliest accession of popula- 
tion to St. Joseph, Cass and Berrien counties appears 
to have come intermediately from Ohio and Indiana, 
and in less numbers from Kentucky and Tennessee; in 

236. Ibid., 180; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 216. The 

village takes its name from James Buchanan, prominent 
at the time of its platting. 

237. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 333. 

238. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 252-253. For the set- 

tlement of the township in this period see the History of 
Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 353-355. 

239. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9, (A), p. 8. 



302 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

many cases it seems to have been either by birth or 
descent traceable to the South Atlantic States, particu- 
larly Virginia and the Carolinas. ''We find it stated 
in a Southern paper," says an editorial on "The St. 
Joseph" in the Northwestern Journal (Detroit) of De- 
cember 2, 1829, "that not less than eight thousand 
individuals have passed through Charleston, Kenawha 
County, Virginia. They were principally from the 
lower part of that State and South Carolina, bound for 
Indiana, Illinois and Michigan." In June, 1836, Har- 
riet Martineau saw in southeastern Berrien County 
"a fine specimen of a settler's family," which "like 
many others" were from the Southern states. "I was 
not surprised," she adds, "to find all emigrants from 
North and South Carolina well satisfied with the 
change they had made."^^° 

In some parts of the section there was a population 
which tended to develop early an active antislavery 
sentiment. This feature was specially marked in Cass 
County. The name of Penn Township in that county 
suggests the presence of Pennsylvania Quakers. In 
1829 a settlement was made in that township on 
Young's Prairie by Quakers from Btitler and Preble 
counties, Ohio, destined to increase and become later 
a prominent station on the "underground railroad. "^'^^ 
The presence of the Quakers attracted fugitive slaves 
later, and it was the Quakers who made Cass County 
a favorite resort for free Negroes. ^^- 

240. Society in America, I, 330. 

241. Glover, History of Cass County, 48, 108; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XXXVIII, 281, n. 5. Ibid., 287-289. 

242. Cass early had the largest Negro population of any Michigan 

county, which it has still. 



ST. JOSEPH VALLEY AND CHICAGO ROAD 303 

Some Pennsylvania- Dutch appear in the section in 
this period, though they came in greater numbers after 
1840. A few of these families made a settlement near 
the close of the period in what later became Noble 
Township, Branch County. -^^ Later they became much 
more prominent in Berrien County, especially in 
Bertrand and Oronoko townships.-'*^ 

Many of the Pennsylvanians and Virginians appear 
to have been of Scotch-Irish descent, whose ancestors 
began coming in the eighteenth century to America 
owing to the English tariff on the linen industry, 
which affected especially the north of Ireland. ^^^ 

The movement of population from the East, particu- 
larly from New York, began to make itself felt in the 
section about 1830. Western New York was the main 
soui-ce of population of Branch and Hillsdale counties 
in this period, though many of these New Yorkers were 
natives of some eastern State. Collin, in his History of 
Brmich County, gives a number of apt illustrations of 
these sources. ^'^'^ The blending of the two movements 
in northern St. Joseph County about this time appears 
in the many settlers from Vermont, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.^*^ 
Berrien County was not materially affected by the 
eastern sources until about 1834.^'^^ 

Of the foreign element, mention is made m the 
Northivesteni J our mil of September 15, 1830, of an 

243. Collin, History of Branch County, 89. 

244. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 26, 210. 

245. Ihid., 146. 

246. p. 37. 

247. History of St. Joseph County (1877), 156.. 

248. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 20, 26. 



304 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS - 

accession of Englishmen to the St. Joseph region. 
This nucleus may have comprised those found by Hoff- 
man in 1833 at White Pigeon, who, he says, were of a 
respectable class and quite popular with the Ameri- 
cans.^*^ He notes as a national characteristic their 
attempt to introduce live hedges in place of fences on 
their prairie farms. A Canadian-French family is said 
to have been the first which settled in Bainbridge 
Township in the north of Berrien Coimty.-^° A num- 
ber of French-Canadians from Lower Canada appear 
to have been taken by a speculator to settle at the 
mouth of the St. Joseph. ^^^ The large German immi- 
gration to Berrien County, so conspicuous in Bain- 
bridge Township and in Flowerfield Township in St. 
Joseph County, did not come until considerably later 
than this period. ^°^ 

249. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 219. 

250. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 214. 

251. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 200. 

252. Beginning about 1840, but greatly augmented after 1848. 

History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 220, 
295; Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 27, 247; His- 
tory of St. Joseph County (1877), 194. 



CHAPTER VI 

Kalamazoo Valley and Territorial Road 

T^HE priority of settlement in the St. Joseph Valley as 
compared with that in the valley of the Kalama- 
zoo is explained largely by the greater closeness of the 
former section to Ohio and Indiana and by its position 
on a trail whose course was deemed the more favorable 
for a national military road. The difference in the re- 
lation of the Chicago and Washtenaw trails respec- 
tively to the St. Joseph and Kalamazoo rivers was 
sufficient to affect settlement in some degree. The 
Chicago Trail was in most of its course independent 
of the main stream of the St. Joseph River, fixing 
the position of a line of settlements somewhat apart 
from it, while the Washtenaw Trail followed rather 
closely the course of the Kalamazoo, combining with 
it for much of its course and forming with it a single 
line of influence upon settlement. 

The physiographic factors which conditioned the set- 
tlement of these sections were alike in nature and in 
some respects in distribution. In each section an im- 
dulating surface was drained by a large central stream; 
there was a rich soil covered with dense forest, open- 
ings and prairies, and many lakelets, springs, marshes 
and creeks. On the east a common watershed sep- 
arated them from the first inland counties ; the sources 

39 



306 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of their principal streams were close together in the 
morainal formation in Hillsdale County, and they shed 
their water westward into Lake Michigan. The physi- 
ographic unity of these sections lay in a common 
glacial origin. The differences of environment, in so 
far as they differentiated settlement at all, were in 
surface irregularity, in marsh land and in forest. 

The surface of the Kalamazoo section was sufficiently 
undulating to give ample water power and drainage; 
however, it was nowhere so high and uneven as that of 
Branch and Hillsdale counties in the section below. 
Scarcely any part of it could be said to be hilly. Cal- 
houn and Kalamazoo counties, level like Cass and St. 
Joseph — of which geologically they were a continua- 
tion — were broken only by slight elevations such as 
those in the townships of Sheridan and Texas. ^ No- 
where in the Kalamazoo Valley was there a dense for- 
est so continuous over a large area as that in southern 
Branch and Hillsdale, though the section contained 
much land of a marshy formation, in particular in 
Jackson County. The marsh land and the lakelets 
were practically the only waste surface. The marsh 
land of the section was considerable, yet it covered in 
the aggregate only a small portion of the entire area.^ 
The land north of the city of Kalamazoo covered at 
present by celery beds is said to have been in the days 

1. History of Calhoun County (1877), 37, 142; History of Kala- 

mazoo County (1880), 536; Blois, Gazetteer, 211, 223. 

2. "In Kalamazoo County there were still in 1880 some fifteen 

thousand acres of marsh land; but much of the original 
marsh has now been reclaimed throughout the section." 
History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 57. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 307 

of the first settlers an impassable tamarack swamp. -^ 
The marshy surface called the "wet prairie," a char- 
acteristic feature of Jackson County, was generally 
easy to drain.'* On the whole, the marsh land was 
distributed widely in small areas along the margins of 
many of the lakes, and quite commonly along the 
creeks.^ Their neighborhood was chosen sometimes 
by settlers for the sake of the wild hay, to supply stock 
through the first winters. Sickness frequently followed 
in these places, which the pioneers referred to the 
apparent fact that even running water, and the water 
of the springs, was impregnated with malaria.^ There 
were a few extensive swamps, and some of these, 
hemmed in by dense forest, made areas that were 
likely to be very slowly settled — for example, Lee 
Township in Calhoun County, which had but fifty-nine 
inhabitants as late as 1840.^ In places the swamps 
were a serious obstacle to transportation, as along the 
Territorial Road. In a letter of 1831 describing a trip 
from Ann Arbor to Calhoun County on that road, a 
writer states that a party of nine immigrants had to 
wade knee-deep through marsh a distance of eighty 
rods with their goods on their backs, and then were 
compelled to work two hours to extricate one of the 
oxen from the mud.^ 



3. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 273. 

4. Blois, Gazetteer, 224. 

5. History of Kalamazoo County, 395, 417, 427; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., II, 223. 

6. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 193, 194. 

7. U. S. Census (1840), 437; History of Calhoun County, 113; 

History of Kalamazoo County, 292; Mich. Hist Colls., 
II, 233. 

8. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 195. 



308 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

On every hand there was the characteristic lakelet. 
In one area six miles square there were seven of these 
of considerable size, and this seems not to have been 
exceptional.^ In Kalamazoo County the water sur- 
face covered ten thousand acres. ^° The attractiveness 
of the larger lakes in later times is shown by their hav- 
ing become well known summer resorts/^ and the way 
in which the settlers regarded them measures the rela- 
tive strength of certain of their motives in choosing 
their lands. For beauty and healthfulness many of 
the lakes could not be surpassed. Often they were fed 
by springs of pure water, which were very numerous 
in the section. Their shores were often natural parks. 
A letter written from Marshall in 1833 by a visitor 
passing through Calhoun County contains excellent 
testimony to their attractiveness, and it is somewhat 
surprising to find that they were not stronger consider- 
ations with settlers. The writer says that "for general 
healthfulness of situation, I believe it is agreed that 
the banks of the small lakes which so abound in the 
peninsula are — when these transparent bodies of water 
are surrounded by a sand beach, which is the case with 
about a third of them — among the healthiest. They 
are fed generally by the springs, and in many cases are 
supposed to have a subterranean outlet; while so 
beautifully transparent are their waters that the 
canoe suspended on their bosom seems to float in mid- 
air. These lakes abound with fish; and in some of 

9. In the present Pavilion Township, Kalamazoo County. 
History of Kalamazoo County, 417. 

10. Ibid., 57. Only the present Wakeshma Township con- 
tained no lakes. See Ibid., 544. 

U. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 352. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 309 

them, of only a few acres in extent, fish have been 
taken of forty pounds weight. They generally lie im- 
bosomed in the oak openings, and with their regular 
and almost formal banks crowned with open groves 
these silver pools might be readily taken for artificial 
trout-ponds in a cultivated park. I need hardly add 
that it is necessary to diverge, as I have, from the 
route generally traveled, to see these scenic gems, so 
numerous, lonely, and beautiful. Not one in a hun- 
dred has a settler on its banks. "^^ 

Reported instances are not lacking of the direct in- 
fluence of these lakes in inducing settlement, though 
beauty of environment needed to be combined, usually, 
with other advantages. Clark's Lake in southeastern 
Jackson County, it is said, early attracted settlers for 
its beauty. ^^ The first settler in Kalamazoo County, 
Basil Harrison, settled on the banks of Harrison Lake 
on Prairie Ronde.^'' The letter above quoted bears 
witness also to the sentiment of natural religion to 
which the beauty of these lakes must have appealed in 
those who beheld them in their original state. ^^ 

There is much evidence, however, that the settler 
did not allow aesthetic or religious sentiment, or even 
proper care of health, to stand in the way of his im- 
mediate material prosperity. The writer of the above 
letter says, speaking of the prevailing causes of sick- 
ness in Michigan, "As for the sickness which always 
prevails more or less among the new settlers, to one 

12. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 194. This was early in 

the settlement of the section. 

13. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 277; History of Jackson County, IIS. 

14. History of Kalamazoo County, 436. 

15. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 195-196. 



310 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

who is aware of their imprudences the wonder is that 
the majority of them escape with their lives. "^^ He 
gives several common examples — among them, settle- 
ment in the vicinity of marshes. The settlement at 
the boggy site of Jackson village illustrates the pre- 
ponderant weight of economic motives. ^^ 

The soil of this section was uniformly fertile, vary- 
ing from a sandy to a clayey loam.^^ Along the Kala- 
mazoo River the rich alluvium of the bottom lands in 
places reached from a half mile to a mile in width on 
each side of the river. ^° The richness of the soil in 
the neighborhood of Kalamazoo village became known 
early and stimulated settlement there. In 1833 a 
settler on the Washtenaw Trail in Calhoun County, on 
being asked about the soil of his farm, characterized 
it as "a pretty good gravelly loam of eighteen inches," 
but he thought something of moving off to Kalama- 
zoo, "where they have it four feet deep and so fat that 
it will grease your fingers. ""° The clay in the soil in 
some parts of the section was sufficient for the manu- 
facture of bricks. ^^ Excellent building material was 
furnished to the hand of the settler also in beds of 
sandstone and limestone.^- 

The soil of the prairies is well represented by the 
rich black loam of Prairie Ronde,^^ or of Toland 

16. Ibid., I, 193. 

17. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 274. 

18. Blois, Gazetteer, 216, 224. 

19. History of Kalamazoo County, 351, 486; Blois, Gazetteer, 211. 

20. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 184. 

21. History of Kalamazoo County, 351. 

22. Blois, Gazetteer, 212, 216, 224. These resources were not 

much used as early as this. 

23. History of Kalamazoo County, 435. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 311 

Prairie, consisting in the latter of a vegetable mould a 
foot in thickness. ^^ From the point of view of timber 
the prairies were little oases embowered in the forest, 
which in their vicinity was usually not dense, and 
whose margin furnished a convenient shelter for the 
settler's cabin. ^^ 

This marginal location was the characteristic way 
of beginning settlement on the prairies. For instance, 
a graduate of Amherst settled in 1830 at the southern 
end of Prairie Ronde, of whose farm of seven hundred 
and twenty acres the greater part was prairie and in- 
cluded marginal timber, in the shelter of a projecting 
tongue of which he built his cabin. ^"^ On the edge of 
a little island of timber near the center of Prairie 
Ronde grew up the village of Schoolcraft.'-^'^ The pre- 
ference of settlers for prairie over timbered land is 
shown by the early entries at Prairie Ronde, where 
nearly all of the prairie land, amounting to thirteen 
thousand acres, was taken up before the neighboring 
timber, except along the margin.-^ The same was true 
on other prairies.-^ This preference for prairie land 
may be understood when it is considered, for example, 
that on Prairie Ronde a straight furrow might be 
plowed for eleven miles without striking stick or 
stone. ^° Moreover, all of the prairies were well drained, 

24. Ibid., 351. 

25. Ibid., 324, 351, 457; Mich. Hist. Colls., XI, 234. 

26. Mich. Hist. Colls., XI, 235. 

27. History of Kalamazoo County, 102. 

28. Ibid., 435. 

29. History of Calhoun County (1877), 941; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XVIII, 554. 

30. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 578. 



312 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

some of them by streams which afforded very good 
water power, as at Vicksburg and Homer.^^ 

Kalamazoo and Calhoun coimties were preeminently 
the prairie cotmties of this section. Their position was 
midway in a prairie region which extended northeast- 
erly from Indiana and Ohio and continued into Barry 
and Eaton counties, a physiographic and geologic 
unity which had its counterpart in unity of early 
prairie settlement. 

The number, extent, and distribution of the prairies 
in Kalamazoo County insured a strong foothold to 
settlement there as soon as immigration should begin. 
Its eight largest prairies covered together twenty-one 
thousand acres, about one-eighth of the area of the 
comity. Two-thirds of this area lay just above the 
southern boundaries, ^^ and it was an easy step from 
Little Prairie Ronde and Nottawa-sepe, respectively in 
Cass and St. Joseph; the distance was slight from Big 
Prairie Ronde and Gourdneck Prairie in Kalamazoo 
County to the other prairies, which were grouped 
mainly near the Kalamazoo River.-^^ This assured 
easy interrelations of settlement. 

As in the St. Joseph Valley so in this section, immi- 
gration entered by two streams, one from the south 
and another from the east. The first settlers, who 
came in 1828-29, were a part of that northward move- 

31. Ihid., II, 209; History of Kalamazoo County, (1880), 435, 

457, 502; History of Calhoun County, (1877), 121. 

32. Blois, Gazetteer, 225; History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 

502. An interesting description of Prairie Ronde is 
given by Cooper in Oak-Openings, Chapter XIX." 
2,?,. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 287, 324, 351, 407, 457; 
Mich. Hist. Colls., 479. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 313 

ment of population which brought the first settlers to 
St. Joseph and Cass counties; some of the earliest im- 
migrants to the Kalamazoo had first settled in those 
counties; the earliest settler on Gourdneck Prairie, 
originally from Fairfield County, Ohio, is said to have 
first settled on Young's Prairie in Cass County.^^ 

The impulse to move westward into Kalamazoo 
County appears to have been felt very early in the 
eastern part of Michigan. In 1826, just after the 
opening of the Erie Canal, there appeared in the De- 
troit Gazette, the report of John Mullet, United States 
surveyor, about the lands on "the rivers St. Joseph and 
Canamazoo," in which he mentions the large prairies 
and the numerous other advantages of soil, timber and 
water in what was to be Kalamazoo County. ^^ Set- 
tlement was then pushing westward over Washtenaw 
County and in the following year began to find its 
way along the Chicago Road into Hillsdale and Branch 
counties. Among the first settlers of Prairie Ronde, 
Grand, Climax, Gull, and Genesee prairies, there were 
many from the eastern part of the Territory.^*^ The 
first white settler of Genesee Prairie, formerly of Huron 
County, Ohio, had resided for some time in St. Clair 
County, Michigan.^^ 

Former Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor settlers were the 
first to locate on Toland Prairie.^ '^ Washtenaw appears 

34. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 506. 

35. Detroit Gazette, Feb. 14, 1826. 

36. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 207; V, 375; VII, 483; XVIII, 596; 

History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 409. 

37. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 409; The earliest 

settler there is said to have been a Negro named Harris. 
Ihid., 410; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 209; XVIII, 598. 

38. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 479. 



314 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

to have been more largely represented than any other 
eastern Michigan county, partly because of its posi- 
tion on the Territorial Road directly east of "the Kala- 
mazoo country;" but the earliest westward movement 
of population to Kalamazoo County appears to have 
been consequent rather upon the attention which set- 
tlements in Cass and St. Joseph counties drew to this 
region. ^^ 

A characteristic group of immigrants illustrating ele- 
ments in the population is described in a traveler's 
letter written in 1833 from Prairie Ronde. Mention is 
made of "a long-haired 'hooshier' from Indiana a 
couple of smart looking 'suckers' from the southern 
part of Illinois, a keen-eyed leather-belted 'badger' 
from the mines of Wisconsin, and a sturdy yeoman- 
like fellow, whose white capot, Indian moccasins, and 
red sash proclaimed, while he boasted a three years' 
residence, the genuine Wolverine, or naturalized Mich- 
iganian. . . . The spokesman was evidently a 
'red horse' from Kentucky, and nothing was wanting 
but a 'buck-eye' from Ohio to render the assemblage 
as complete as it was select. . . . 'From the east- 
ern side, stranger?' said another to me, 'I am told it is 
a tolerable frog pasture. Now here the soil's so deep 
one can't raise any long sarce— they all get pulled 
through the other side. We can winter our cows, 
however, on wooden clocks, there's so many Yankees 
among us.' "^'^ 



39. One of the earliest newspaper descriptions of the "burr oak 

openings and beautiful rich prairies" of Kalamazoo 
County is contained in the Detroit Free Press of Sept. 13, 
1832, quoting the St. Joseph Beacon. 

40. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 210, 212. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 315 

The mingling of these two currents of immigration 
in the first prairie settlements is illustrated by three 
colonies founded in 1830. One in the southern part 
of the county on Prairie Ronde, was known as "Vir- 
ginia Corners;"'*^ a second, on the same prairie, was 
from Windsor, Vermont;^- and in the northern part of 
the county above Kalamazoo River an Ohio colony of 
twenty-four people settled on Gull Prairie.^^ In 1830-31 
Genesee Prairie, just west from Kalamazoo village, 
began to receive settlers from Genesee County, New 
York, for which the prairie was named. By 1831 all 
of the eight larger prairies of Kalamazoo County had 
received their first settlers both from the East and 
from the South, though the southern element was pre- 
dominant. Many who had come from the South were 
natives of eastern states, and many who came from 
eastern Michigan had sojourned in Ohio. It is prob- 
able that many of the latter immigrants to the county 
were drawn thither either by information from friends 
or relatives in Ohio or through direct knowledge of 
the Ohio settlements in the "Kalamazoo country." 

The several steps in migrating to the county from 
New England and from states southward are typically 
illustrated in the careers of two founders of the first 
settlement on Prairie Ronde, Basil Harrison and 
Erastus Guilford. Basil Harrison, who was born in 

41. History of Kalamazoo County, (1880), 504. 

42. Ibid., 516, 517; Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 273. 

43. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 207. This colony is mentioned in the 

Northwestern Journal of June 30, 1830, as coming from 
Hudson, Ohio, and their settlement is called Geloster. 
This appears to be the original nucleus of the village of 
Geloster in Richmond Township, mentioned in Blois' 
Gazetteer, p. 289, as "commenced in 1833." 



316 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Frederick Coiinty, Maryland, and who in early life 
was a resident of Virginia and later of Pennsylvania, 
in 1810 migrated to Kentucky, thence to Clark County, 
Ohio, and came to Michigan in 1828, by way of Fort 
Wayne.''* Erastus Guilford was a native of Northamp- 
ton, Massachusetts; he emigrated in early life to 
Ohio, and thence to Ypsilanti; failing to operate a 
distillery successfully there he returned to Ohio, but 
he determined to try his fortunes again in Michigan, 
and entering the Territory by way of Monroe and the 
Chicago Road, he settled near Harrison on Prairie 
Ronde, in 1829.^^ Illustrations could be multipHed. 
The great majority of the early settlers of this county, 
as of most Michigan counties, made several halts on 
their way from their native towns. The New Eng- 
landers very frequently settled for a time in New 
York State; Southerners very often first settled in 
Kentucky and Tennessee; settlers from Pennsylvania 
and Maryland were most likely to stop for a time in 
Ohio or Indiana, and often in Illinois. 

Prairie settlement in Calhoun County varied in 
several respects from that in Kalamazoo. The prairies 
were smaller, less numerous, and not so well distributed ; 
they attracted a comparatively small share of the 
southern immigration and were settled later, mainly 
from the East. The most of Calhoun's prairie land 
was in the west, excepting Cook's Prairie, which 
covered a considerable area in the southeast. In the 
vicinity of Battle Creek was Goguac Prairie, of fair 
size. Directly south across the county was Dry 

44. History of Kalamazoo County (1880, 436-439; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., I, 207; VII, 481; XVIII, 17. 

45. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 441. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 317 

Prairie, which extended into Branch. Their settle- 
ment was begun in 1831-32.'**^ It was sHghtly pre- 
ceded by several river settlements in 1830-31,''^ one' of 
them at Marshall; the land on these prairies, however, 
was eagerly bought up. On Dry Prairie fourteen hun- 
dred and forty acres were entered by actual settlers in 
one day."*^ The land of Goguac Prairie was all bought 
up before that on the river in the neighboring open- 
ings.'*^ All of the prairies had early a considerable 
number of settlers, ^° mainly from New York and Ver- 
mont.^' In 1832 a settlement began near Homer vil- 
lage which attracted Pennsylvanians.''" There were 
many New Yorkers among them ; the village of Homer 
was named from Homer in Cortland County, New 
York,^^ and Clarendon Township containing a portion 
of Cook's Prairie was named by settlers from Claren- 
don. Orleans County, New York.^^ The first settler 
on that prairie, though immediately from Washtenaw, 
was formerly from Cayuga County, New York.^^ 

Elsewhere in the section the prairies were too few 
and too small to form an important factor in the be- 
ginnings of settlement, but wherever prairie land was 
found it was certain to be entered at an early date. 

46. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 209; III, 347; History of Calhoun 

County (1877), 80, 134, 186. 

47. Ibid., I, 129; II, 235. 

48. Ibid., II, 209. 

49 . History of Calhoun County ( 1 8 7 7 ) , 94 1 . 

50. Ibid., 94; Collin, History of Branch County, 81. 

51. History of Calhoun County (1877), 116, 135, 186; Mich. 

Hist. Colls., V, 272-293, passim. 

52. History of Calhoun County {1S7 7), 121. 

53. Ibid., 121. 

54. Ibid., 186. 

55. Ibid., 186. 



318 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Allegan and Van Buren counties had practically no 
prairie land excepting a corner of Little Prairie Ronde 
in Van Buren just over the boundary from Cass 
County.^^ Van Buren received its first settlers upon 
this land in 1829, from Scioto County, Ohio." In 
Jackson County the "wet prairie" land not infre- 
quently attracted settlers who were interested in stock- 
raising, its southwestern part being first settled largely 
for the advantages of these natural meadows. ^^ 

Next to the prairie land the oak openings and the 
burr-oak plains were the settler's preference, not so 
much for the sake of the soil as for their relative 
openness as compared with much of the forested area, 
which made for ease of travel and immediate cultiva- 
tion. The plains covered about a quarter of Jackson 
County, and the rest of its area was largely oak 
openings, of a piece with those of northern Hillsdale. ^^ 
The most of Calhoun was covered with burr- and 
white-oak openings, "^^ as was also fully two-thirds of 
Kalamazoo County. "^^ Cooper's Oak-Openings com- 
memorates this feature of the timbered land in the 
Kalamazoo Valley.®^ 

56. Blois, Gazetteer, 224, 242. 

57. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 630; V, 149; XXXVIII, 638. He 

came by way of Pokagon Prairie in Cass County. 

58. Ibid., IV, 277. A convenient secondary survey of the 

topography and geology of Jackson County is given in 
the History of Jackson County (1881), 117-128. 

59. Blois, Gazetteer, 224. 

60. Ibid., 216. 

61. Ihid., 225. 

62. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 271, 307. Much of the action takes 

place in Kalamazoo County. A characteristic song of 
pioneer days, reprinted from the Centennial Record of 
Michigan in the History of Allegan and Barry Counties 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 319 

The beauty of these plains and openings in summer 
must have been most pleasing to the settlers, whose 
reminiscences describe them variously as being Hke "a 
sea of grass and flowers," or Hke "a vast field of ripe 
grain, with here and there an orchard. "^^ Even in winter 
these plains had their charms. A traveler in Calhoun 
County writes: "But, lost as I was, I could not help 
pausing frequently when I struck the first burr-oak 
opening I had ever seen, to admire its novel beauty. 
It looked more like a pear-orchard than anything else 
to which I can assimilate it — the trees being some- 
what of the shape and size of fuUgrown pear trees, and 
standing at regular intervals apart from each other on 
the firm level soil, as if planted by some gardener. 
Here, too, I first saw deer in herds; and half frozen 
and weary as I was, the sight of these spirited-looking 
creatures sweeping in troops through these intermin- 
able groves, where any eye could follow them for miles 
over the smooth snowy plain, actually warmed and 
invigorated me, and I could hardly refrain from put- 
ting the rowels into my tired horse, and latmching after 
the noble game."^^ 

In the same letter, commenting upon the compara- 

62. Con. (1880), p. 27, note, after eulogizing various parts of 

Michigan adds about Kalamazoo: 

But of all the damdest countries 
Beneath the shining sun, 
Old Kalamazoo can take the rag 
When all the rest are done. 
There in the burr-oak openings, 
Big Matcheebeenashewish 
Raised double crops of com and b6ans 
And ate them with his fish. 

63. Ihid., II, 194, 256. 

64. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 183. 



320 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tive ease of cultivating the plains and openings and 
upon the general neglect of them for the prairies, the 
writer exclaims: "What a country this is. Into land 
like this, which is comparatively undervalued by those 
seeking to settle on the prairie a man can run his plow 
without felling a tree; and, planting a hundred acres, 
where he would clear but ten in the unsettled dis- 
tricts of New York, raise his twenty -five bushels of 
wheat to an acre in the very first season. ""^^ To this 
latter fact, among other reasons, is undoubtedly owing 
the large immigration from the State of New York. 
In the Detroit Courier for November 6, 1833, a cor- 
respondent describing the environment of Calhoim 
County extols its burr-oak plain above the prairies 
westward on account of the greater nearness to plenti- 
ful water power and timber. 

The heavily timbered lands were settled much more 
slowly, as for example Newton Township in Calhoun 
County, which though it was just off the Territorial 
Road had no buyers until 1833, when purchases were 
still made only in small amounts ;*^^ it did not have a 
settler until 1834. The most important woods of the 
section were oak, beech, maple, ash, basswood, white- 
wood, butternut and black walnut. ^^ These varieties, 
except the latter, were abundant in all parts of these 
covinties. Allegan and Van Buren had much valuable 
pine, of which the names of Pine Creek and Pine 
Grove Township are reminiscent. The 'Tine Creek 
neighborhood," near the junction of that stream with 

65. Ihid., I, 183. 

66. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 244. 

67. Blois, Gazetteer, 242; Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 407. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 321 

the Kalamazoo, made its beginnings of settlement 
about 1831, consisting mainly of preparations to cut off 
the pine along the creek. Under the name of New 
Rochester, or Sherwood's Mills, so-called from their 
owner who came from Rochester, New York, the place 
was for some time a vigorous rival of the villages on 
the plains; but its fate was decreed by the financial 
crisis of ISvS?.'^^ In the pine lands of Van Buren 
County, w^hile the timber was a valuable asset to 
settlement in the openings there was little agricul- 
tural development for a decade after this period. Pine 
Grove Township appears to have had but thirty voters 
in 1849.'"^9 

Lumbering on a small scale for local consumption 
was an important early industry. It was much facil- 
itated by an abundance of water power, which was 
well distributed throughout the section on the main 
streams and tributaries of the Kalamazoo, the St. 
Joseph, the Grand and the Paw Paw rivers.'^" 

The water power of the Kalamazoo made that river 
the great central agent of settlement for the entire 
section. Where the power was especially good, as at 
Albion, Marshall, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Alle- 
gan, there early began that process of centralizing 
population which has made cities at those points. The 

68. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 36, 40, 42, 43; Blois, 

Gazetteer, 361. 

69. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 521, 522- 

Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 295. 

70. Blois, Gazetteer, 216, 304; History of Calhoun County (1877), 

105, 134; History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 351, 435, 

486, 502, 523. 

41 



322 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

river takes its rise in the springs and lakes of Hills- 
dale.'^^ Entering this section across the southwestern 
corner of Jackson County it keeps westward some- 
what above the center of the section until it reaches a 
point a little west of Kalamazoo, where it bends 
northward through Allegan County. In places its 
channel is quite deep, as near Kalamazoo, where the 
surface of the river is a hundred feet below the sur- 
face of the surrounding country.'^- The uniformity of 
its volume is due to many feeding springs and equaliz- 
ing lakes and marshes which prevent low water from 
drought, or devastation of the neighboring country in 
flood time.'^^ The power of its current being practi- 
cally constant, settlements could with few exceptions 
be made close to its banks without fear of floods. The 
deep black alluvial soil, sometimes two miles in width, 
characterizing much of the bottom lands, insured quick 
and abundant returns for a minimum expenditure of 
labor. '^^ Only one prairie lay immediately on its banks, 
but several were within a short distance, near enough 
to help create and foster flourishing river settlements. 
Its course was skirted with a great variety of lands, 
open, marshy, or heavily timbered — a variety found 
often within a small area.^^ Its lower course for fifty 
miles inland from Lake Michigan was serviceable for 
navigation by flat-boats, barges and canoes, and small 

71. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 272. 

72. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 287. 

73. Ibid., 57. 

74. Blois, Gazetteer, 211; History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 

351. 

75. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 351, 395, 396. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 823 

steamboats were tried in the early days with a degree 
of success. ^"^ 

Though the Kalamazoo and its branches formed 
the main agent of drainage and water power in the 
section, its influence was supplemented by other large 
streams. In Van Buren County the Paw Paw River, 
a large branch of the St. Joseph, gave good water 
power, and the main stream was boatable for small 
craft for a distance of seventy miles from its mouth, 
about a mile above the village of St. Joseph. ^^ By the 
close of this period many of its mill sites had been im- 
proved. One of them explains partly the location of 
Paw Paw village, which is said to have been platted in 
1833 by speculators from Prairie Ronde and from the 
Mohawk Valley in New York.'^^ It was at the junc- 
tion with the Territorial Road to St. Joseph, and pro- 
fited by the travel; besides its mills, it had three stores 
in 1838.^^ Other nascent villages on the branches of 

76. Ibid., 57, 168. For the early river traffic on the Kalamazoo 

see also Thomas, History of Allegan County, 33, 34, 55, 57; 
Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 282; XVIII, 591; XXVII, 290; 
Michigan House Documents, No. 9, (D), 43 and No. 9, 
(G), 70. 

77. Blois, Gazetteer, 242, 338. Before the Michigan Central 

Railroad, flat -boating on the Paw Paw River was quite 
extensive, but not profitable. It is said that in 1840 
two large flat-boats built at Paw Paw were loaded with 
flour for St. Joseph, but that the trip took so long and 
met so many difficulties from shoals and snags as to be 
hardly more profitable than wagon transportation. Early 
efforts to make the river more navigable had little suc- 
cess. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties, 505. 

78. Ibid., 506. 

79. Blois. Gazetteer, 338. The county seat was located there in 

1840. Session Laws (1840), 36. 



324 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the Paw Paw were at Van Buren,^° Lafayette, ^^ and 
Lawrence. The latter was an interesting speculation, 
made in 1835 by one of the founders of Ann Arbor 
(John Allen) on Brush Creek, who built a mill there 
in 1836; but it had less than a dozen families after 
nearly a decade of growth.'^'' Other branches of the 
St. Joseph drained no small portion of this section, as 
much as three-eighths of Kalamazoo, illustrating again 
the physiographic unity of the sections. The power 
on the Black River seems not to have been used until 
later than this period. The site of the village of Ban- 
gor on that stream is said to have received its first set- 
tler in 1837;^^ and the mouth of the stream, though 
commercially favored, received little attention until 
1852 when South Haven was platted. ^"^ The larger 
portion of Jackson County was drained by the source 
streams of the Grand, the Huron and the Raisin. ^^ 

Closely associated with the waterways as agents in 
determining the location of the first settlements were 
the Indian trails. The principal trail of the section 
was the Washtenaw Trail, which lay westward from 

80. Blois, Gazetteer, 377. 

81. Ihid., 308. 

82. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 494. It 

was one of the several villages originally named Mason, 
after the first governor of Michigan. 

83 . History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties ( 1 880) ,411. The 

village was not platted until 1860. Ibid., 413. 

84. Its advantages are said to have been appreciated in 1834, 

when a house was built and a village platted. This was 
by a native of Surrey, New Hampshire, an employe^ in 
the fur trade, who in locating lands for Cass and Cam- 
pau, passed there; but this beginning was not followed 
up. Ibid., 534, 539. 

85. Clavk, Gazetteer of Michigan {1863), 99. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL\L ROAD 325 

Ann Arbor along the banks of the Kalamazoo, and 
from which at various points local trails branched off 
to the neighboring country. In the western part of 
the section the site of Kalamazoo was a point upon 
which local trails converged from various directions, 
chiefly from the neighboring prairies, and became the 
lines of the first recorded roads in the county. ^"^ In 
the eastern part of the section a similar point was the 
site of Jackson, a favorite Indian camping ground ;^^ 
its first white settler is said to have reached that point 
by the aid of a Potawatomi Indian guide. ^^ These two 
places, together with Saugatuck at the mouth of the 
Kalamazoo, an Indian haunt commemorated by Coop- 
er, were the first river sites in the section to be chosen 
for white settlement. 

The choice of these Indian sites and the close rela- 
tion of the roads to the trails is evidence of the essential 
agreement between the white man and the red man 
on some of the conditions favoring primitive settle- 
ment. The concentration of trails at a river indi- 
cated usually a good fording place, sometimes caused 
by shallows, often by rapids, the latter affording step- 
ping stones for crossing. At the rapids fish were likely 
to accumulate in passing up-stream. The soil in the 
vicinity being usually a fertile alluvium and easy to cul- 
tivate, an Indian village was likely to grow up there, 

86. Mich. Hist Colls., XVIII, 580, 596, 606; History of Kala- 

mazoo County (1880), 291. The numerous garden beds 
indicate that the vicinity of Kalamazoo was extensively 
cultivated by a prehistoric people. History of Kalamazoo 
County, 164. 

87. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 274. 

88. Ibid., II, 275. 



326 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

and with the interests of the Indian coincided those 
of the^j^fur trader in making this the chief point of 
their (trade. There is said to have been an Indian 
trader at the site of Kalamazoo at the time of its first 
white^ settlement, from whom the first settler obtained 
supplies. It was an important coincidence that these 
points on the rivers afforded usually the best water 
power, which on the whole appears to have been the 
most vital consideration to the white settler. 

It would seem that the selection of these three river 
sites was independent of the Territorial Road, which 
was not then surveyed ; yet since they were all selected 
in 1829, the year in which the road was authorized, 
the choice of the sites of Jackson and Kalamazoo may 
have been, if not directly influenced, hastened by anti- 
cipation of the possibilities which the road would open 
for villages at those sites. It should be observed that 
as soon as Jackson village was located, efforts were put 
forth at once by its founders to secure the survey of 
the road through it.^^ The choice of the site of Sauga- 
tuck at the mouth of the river, far removed from the 
road, was undoubtedly made from motives indepen- 
dent of it. 

In view of the physiography of the site of Jackson, 
however, it is natural to look for some more cogent 
motive for choosing it so early for the -site of a future 
city. According to descriptions of primitive conditions 
there, it was for that purpose a very unpromising place. 
"A more forbidding site for a village or city than that 
chosen for Jackson," says a reminiscent sketch, "could 
not in all probability have been foimd in the State of 
89. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 349. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY' AND TERRLFORLXL ROAD 327 

Michigan. "^° The ground was in places low and. 
swampy; the high ground is described as "a succession 
of sand knolls . . . interspersed with springs and 
bog-holes." The heavily timbered bottom land was so 
low and wet that some thirty years elapsed after the 
founding of the village before there was a good street 
through it. It is said that workmen digging ditches tor 
water pipes or other public utilities still find, several 
feet under the present surface, the old log causeways. 
The choice of the site of Jackson, apart from its water 
power and its relation to the trails, is explained by 
its position at the geographic center of the newly 
created county of Jackson, which it was well known 
would cause it to find favor as the county seat.^^ This 
favor it secured in 1830, and so hopeful did the com- 
missioners feel ovet the geographical importance of its 
position, they predicted in their report to Governor 
Cass that it would be the site of the future capital of 
the State: "So sanguine were we, that we required 
the proprietors to appropriate ten acres of land for 
the state-house square. "^^ 

Of an opposite character was the immediate site of 
Kalamazoo, in the midst of a beautiful burr-oak plain 
some hundred feet above the river. ^'^ Its first white 
settler had seen several Michigan villages founded, 
and fostered into successful financial ventures — among 
them Ann Arbor; and the environment of these two 

90. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 274. 

91. Ibid., II, 275; V, 348. 

92. Ibid., V, 280. 

93. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 208. A writer in Mich. 

Hist. Colls., V, 368, quotes Horace Greeley as saying, 
with slight reservation, that " Kalamazoo is the most 
beautiful place this side the base line of Paradise." 



328 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

sites were in some points similar. Without doubt a 
city was contemplated from the very first. 

The influences that bore upon this settler seem 
clear. He could have been familiar with the agita- 
tion that resulted in the Territorial Road, and he 
could have known of the plans to found a village at 
Jackson, since he resided at that time at Ann Arbor, 
where the plan was matured. He had lived in Michi- 
gan since 1823, in Oakland and Wayne counties prior 
to his residence in Washtenaw. ^^ He came to Michi- 
gan from Talmadge, Ohio, and in 1827 when he re- 
visited that State he seems to have received informa- 
tion from a pioneer of Medina County about the Kala- 
mazoo country. ^^ He appears to have visited, in that 
year, the site of the future city, and it is probable that 
the project of 1829 was maturing in his mind during 
those two years. The fact that the lands of Kalama- 
zoo were not in the market until 1829 would probably 
be sufficient to deter him. His hobby was cultivating 
a new variety of potato — the Neshannock — which he 
seems to have been the first to introduce into Michi- 
gan and which gained for him the soubriquet "Potato 
Bronson." The rich black soil at Kalamazoo would 
be for this purpose a desideratum, but his main aim 
seems to have been to found a city, which he platted 
in 1831. 9« 



94. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 365. He is said to have bought forty- 

five acres in Section 15 of Ypsilanti Township, close to 
the Huron River, in 1823. Beakes, Past and Present of 
Washtenaw County, 546. 

95. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 368, History of Kalatuazoo County 

(1880), 209, 210. 

96. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 366. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 329 

The first settler on the site of Saugatuck was a 
native of Hartford, Connecticut, whose family came 
to that site by way of the Great Lakes in 1830.^^ A 
knowledge of the early history of the settlements along 
the Connecticut River would naturally suggest to a 
native of Hartford the value of a position at the 
mouth of an important river. A harbor and lake port 
would seem an obvious advantage in view of the 
possibility of obtaining Government aid. It was only 
a little while before this that a settlement had been 
made at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, just below 
Saugatuck, as a port for the St. Joseph Valley. The 
activities of 1829-30 along the eastern portion- of the 
Kalamazoo, indicating the advance of the frontier, 
would naturally suggest to him the agricultural de- 
velopment of that region, which would erelong need 
an outlet by river transportation. It appears that 
some four miles up the river from Saugatuck the 
American Fur Company had estabHshed a trading 
post as early as 1825, and it is thought that he was 
connected with it as a trader. ^^ In 1834, the year 
in which the first strong impulse seems to have 
been given to the settlement of Allegan County, this 
settler, William Butler, platted a village on the site 
of Saugatuck which he called Kalamazoo. ^^ In the 
same year other settlers built a mill and a tannery 
there. ^°° A postofhce was established in 1835. But 
the trading, lumbering, shipping and fruit-growing, 

97. Ibid., Ill, 301. 

98. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 32. 

99. Ibid., 125, See also the Detroit Daily Free Press for June 

18, 1836. 
100. Ibid., Z2>. 



330 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

which formed the basis of its development, ^°^ were 
things far in the future. The place is apparently- 
mentioned by Blois as Newark, which he credits with 
a warehouse and about a dozen dwellings. ^°- The 
western third of the county, organized in 1836 into the 
township of Newark, contained according to the census 
of 1837 a population of 190.-^°^ There is said to have 
been no store in Saugatuck until 1851.^°'* 

Otsego, Gtm Plains and Allegan were the next set- 
tlements made in Allegan County, all on the river, 
and of course independent of the Territorial Road, 
which bent its course southwestward through Van 
Buren County towards the mouth of the St. Joseph. ^°^ 

About the time of the first settlement at the mouth 
of the river (1829-30) explorers are said to have visited 
the eastern part of the county. One point inspected 
was the rapids in the river at the site of Otsego. A 
number of settlers appear to have located in the 
neighborhood by the close of 1831 and made a settle- 
ment on the site of the village. ^^"^ But the year 1836 
marks the first real impulse to the formation of a vil- 
lage, when the first mill was built, an impulse which 

101. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 124. 

102. Blois, Gazetteer, 331. 

103. Session Laws (1835-36), 76; Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 

70; Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 305-306. 
kX 104. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 125. One cause of the 
slow growth of Saugatuck in the early days appears to 
have been the rivalry of the village of Singapore, located 
between the mouth of the river and Saugatuck. This 
was a speculative village founded in 1836 by New York 
parties. Ibid., 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 306; XXXVIII, 
159. 

105. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 557, 559. 

106. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 40, 41. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 331 

appears to have come from the wealthy founder of 
Comstock village in Kalamazoo County. ^°^ It is sig- 
nificant that this was the year in which the county 
was organized into its first four townships. ^''^ Otsego 
Township is said to have had in that year thirty-four 
taxpayers, ^°^ and the census of 1837 credits it with a 
population of 341.^^° The village contained then about 
150 people."! 

Gun Plains, about the junction of Gun River with 
the Kalamazoo, was a burr-oak opening, the largest 
continuous area of cleared land in the county and the 
first to be extensively cultivated."^ Its natural physio- 
graphic relation with Gull Prairie in Kalamazoo County 
is shown by the connecting Indian trail, destined to 
become an axis of settlement in that region; from 
this prairie, over this trail, came its early settlers. Ap- 
parently the first comer was a member of the colony 
which came to the prairie in 1830 from Hudson, Ohio 
— a man of much influence, said to have been grad- 
uated from a Vermont medical college; dissatisfied 
with his prairie farm, he is said to have tried his for- 
tunes first at the "Pine Creek settlement" before set- 
tling in 1832 on the plains, though he purchased land 
there in the preceding year."^ Plainficld Township, 

107. Ibid., 48, 416. The first frame house, built in 1833, was 

probably made from lumber obtained at the Pine Creek 
settlement. 

108. Session Laws (1835-36), 76. 

109. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 51. 

110. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

111. Blois, Gazetteer, 336. 

112. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 38, 39, 49. 

113. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 46. Plainwell village 

appears not to have been platted until 1850. 



332 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

which included a strip six miles wide across the eastern 
end of the county, had in 1837 a population of 317.^^'* 

Like the sites of Kalamazoo and Jackson, that of 
Allegan was also marked by the concentration of 
numerous Indian trails at an important ford of the 
Kalamazoo. ^^^ The physical advantages which prob- 
ably most influenced the early settlement of the village 
are those set forth in the prospectus accompanying the 
"Plan of Allegan," which was apparently widely cir- 
culated in 1837. "Allegan, from its various natural 
and acquired advantages, will doubtless rank erelong 
among the most populous towns of the West," declares 
this document. ^^"^ Emphasis is laid upon the water 
power at the rapids of the Kalamazoo, equal to that 
at Rochester; on its situation at the head of steam- 
boat navigation from Lake Michigan, on the high and 
heathful position above the river, the superior farming 
lands near, the abundant timber including extensive 
tracts of pine, the beds of clay for brick, the marl beds 
for lime, and the sand for glass. 

The cause of the early and rapid start of the village 
is to be found also in the manner of its founding and 
in its strong personal element. A stock company of 
Boston and New York capitalists, having purchased 
there in 1833-34 twenty thousand acres of land, im- 
mediately sent on their agents and workmen to begin 
clearing the site for a city.^^'' The county seat was 

114. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70; Session Laws 

(1835-36), 76. 

115. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 271. 

116. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 55. 

117. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 97; 111,270, 279; IV, 173; XVII, 

558, 559. Among the original promoters were men from 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL\L ROAD 333 

secured, a mill was built and buildings erected, and 
the river was bridged. ^'^^ 

In the prospectus, the settlement of the village is 
dated from 1835, but the first store appears to have 
been built in 1836, the year in which the mill was 
completed. There, as at Otsego, this year reflects a 
strong impulse. The spirit of joy in the new enter- 
prize characteristic of that year in all parts of Michi- 
gan is reflected in a remark of one of the founders who 
is said to have refused a hundred thousand dollars for 
his one-third interest in the property, that he wanted 
a home and "the luxury of helping build up a city."^^^ 
In that year articles began to appear in the newspapers 
of Detroit and the East about Allegan village, em- 
phasizing especially the water power, the pine, and the 
navigability of the river. ^"° About fifty frame build- 
ings are said to have been erected in that year, prob- 
ably from lumber sawed there. ^^^ When in 1837 it 

117. Con. Boston, Rochester, Detroit, Marshall, and Kalamazoo. 

One of these was. Samuel Hubbard, said to have been a 
resident of Boston and judge of the supreme court of 
Mass.; another was Charles C. Trowbridge, of Detroit, 
whose name is preserved in Trowbridge Street. Both 
of these men appear on the revised plat of the village as 
the proprietors in 1837. Thomas, History of Allegan 
County, 54, 57. The earliest name associated with the 
site is that of Elisha Ely, of Rochester, New York. 
Ibid., 53. 

118. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 56. The village was 

incorporated in 1838. 

119. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 174. 

120. For example the Detroit Daily Free Press, Feb. 8, 1836, 

quoting from the Onondaga (N. Y.) Standard one of a 
series of articles, and the Detroit Daily Advertiser, 
Nov. 29, 1836, quoting from the Ann Arbor State 
Journal. 

121. Blois, Gazetteer, 247. 



334 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

was attempted to resurvey the village, because of the 
irregularity of the streets as laid out in 1834, settle- 
ment was found too much advanced on the old streets 
to permit of it.^-- Allegan Township in that year, 
about twice the size of Otsego Township, contained a 
population of 621, but as in the case of Otsego this 
was probably in the main gathered about the village 
center. ^^^ In that case it was the most populous vil- 
lage center in the county, containing nearly half of the 
county's people. Blois credits the village in 1838 
with about 700.^24 

The financial crisis of the period seems to have hit 
this prosperity a hard blow. The village is said to 
have had in 1850 but a few more people than were 
claimed in 1838.^-^ Its permanence was asstired, how- 
ever, by the central industry of lumbering, by the 
surroimding agricultural development, and by its cen- 
tral position in the county which assured its possession 
of the county seat. 

The influence of the Territorial Road in Van Buren 
County after its survey in 1836 and the water power 
of the Paw Paw River, fostered a village at Paw Paw. 
What little settlement there was in the county in the 
period, outside of the prairie land in the southwest, 
appears to have been mainly grouped, as at Paw Paw, 
about the points where the road crossed streams 



122. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 53. 

123. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 70; Session Laws (1835- 

36), 76. 

124. Blois, Gazetteer, 247. 

125. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 59. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 335 

affording water power, ^^e ^ stage line seems to have 
been put on the road through Paw Paw, Keeler, 
Bainbridge and Benton in 1836, from Detroit to St. 
Joseph. ^2^^ Most of the present important villages 
and cities of the county received their start much 
later, in the period of railroad development.^-^ 

In Calhoun County, though Albion, Marshall and 
Battle Creek were also located after the survey of the 
Territorial Road, the influence of that road on their 
location was apparently only such as might attach to 
"a blaze and a name." The dominant attraction was 
water power. The site of Marshall was at the junc- 
tion of Rice Creek with the Kalamazoo; that of Battle 
Creek, at the junction of the Kalamazoo with "the 
Creek. "^^^ The water power of both places was 
covered by purchase of neighboring lands in 1830,^^° 
and it was so eagerly desired at Battle Creek that 
when the neighboring lands came on the market in 



126. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 394, 421, 

456, 466, 477. One of the few small village centers out- 
side of Paw Paw was Keelerville on the Territorial Road, 
first settled in 1834. Ibid., 477; Blois, Gazetteer, 307. 

127. Blois, Gazetteer, 51. Dodge's tavern is said to have been 

built at Paw Paw in 1834 to accommodate travel on the 
Territorial Road. History of Berrien and Van Buren 
Counties (1880), 508. 

128. For example, Decatur, Lawton, and Hartford. History of 

Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 382, 442, 460; 
Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 363. 

129. The "battle" has significance for the attitude of the Indians 

towards the U. S. surveyors in 1825. See Mich. Hist. 
Colls., VI, 248-251; History of Calhoun County (1877), 
79, 88. 

130. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 130; II, 235; XXX, 452; History of 

Calhoun County, 15. 



336 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

1831 they were sought simultaneously by a half dozen 
rival applicants and entered by a compromise. ^^^ 

The importance of mills to the progress of early set- 
tlement in this section was very great. A pioneer in 
the vicinity of Battle Creek accounts for the slowness 
of development there by "the simple fact that not- 
withstanding the fertility of her soil and her abund- 
ant water power, there were no accessible sawmills to 
furnish building rnaterial, and no gristmills to furnish 
flour for family consumption. "^'^^ It is said that as 
late as the winter of 1834-35 the lumber for a school- 
house floor was floated down the "Creek" from Belle- 
vue in Eaton County ;^^^ apparently lumber was not 
sawed at Battle Creek until the following winter. ^^"^ 
Foremost among these river villages in building mills 
was Marshall where both a sawmill and a gristmill 
were erected in 1831-32.^^^ In Kalamazoo County the 
mills at Comstock and at Vicksburg preceded those at 
Kalamazoo. 

The presence of the Territorial Road, though only in 
"blaze and name," had probably some influence upon 
rural settlement along the river in this part of the 
section, and to the influence of the road and the river 
must be added the centralizing power of the county 



131. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 213; III, 347. 

132. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 213. 

133. Ibid., II, 214. According to Thomas,- History of Allegan 

County, (p. 48), the first frame house at Battle Creek 
was built from lumber sawed in the 'Tine Creek vSettle- 
ment" in Allegan County. 

134. Ibid., II, 221, History of Calhoun County (1877), 80. - 

135. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131, History of Calhoun County (1877), 

50, 55. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL'KL ROAD 337 

seats^-'^'^ at Jackson, Marshall, Kalamazoo and the other 
prospective centers of population. In Jackson County 
at the end of 1830 there were a few log cabins at in- 
tervals of from six to fourteen miles on the trail be- 
tween Jackson and Ann Arbor. ^" Outside of Jackson 
the most important points on the road in that county 
were at Grass Lake and Spring Arbor ;^^^ three of the 
four townships in which the people of the county were 
distributed in 1834 took their names from these points 
on the Territorial Road.^'"^^ A general index to the 
distribution of population, if allowances be made for 
speculation, is found in the land sales. The largest 
number of land sales made prior to 1835 in Calhoun 
County were in the immediate vicinity of Marshall, 
Battle Creek and Albion, and between them along the 
Territorial Road.^"^" The presence of Goguac Prairie 
accounts partly for the large number of sales near 
Battle Creek. 

The influence of the Territorial Road as an actual 
convenience of travel in this period was probably not 
very great. The authorization of that road in 1829 
came from the same general impulse which led to the 
increase of immigration to the Territory as a whole, 
partly to the establishment of the numerous western 

136. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 211; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

I, 128; Ibid., II, 280. 

137. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 281; III, 510. 

138. History of Jackson County (1881), 843, 1,059; Hoffman, 

A Winter in the West, I, 179-180; Mich. Hist. Colls., 
V, 347. 

139. Territorial Laws, III, 998; Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 347. 

140. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 209-237, passim; History of Calhoun 

County (1877). 150. 
43 



338 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

counties in that year south of Grand River, ^*^ and 
again to the new volume of westward moving popula- 
tion along the Chicago Road. Settlers, perhaps stimu- 
'ated by the authorization of the new road, pushed 
westward into the newly established counties ahead 
of its actual survey and urged that the survey be 
made at once, but the wagon-tracks of pioneers were 
long the only improvements. In response to the 
urgent need of getting eastward ''to mill," volunteer 
parties of settlers built such bridges, as they could, 
over creeks and bogs where they were most needed, 
but these rude contrivances afforded even at the 
creeks a doubtful security.^'*- The numerous marshes 
made traveling not only inconvenient, but dangerous. 
There was an extensive marsh on the road near Grass 
Lake in Jackson County which gave much trouble; 
says a member of one party, "We had not made more 
than half the distance across it when we were brought 
up standing, or rather sticking in the mud. 
Thinking to lighten our load we all got off and waded 
through, and happily escaped the venomous fangs 
of the massasaugas with which the swamps were then 
so thickly infested." Four yokes of oxen failed to ex- 
tricate the wagons from the mud "Totally uncon- 
scious of how far we were from human habitation or 
assistance, eight o'c ock in the evening found our 
teams mud-boimd, and ourselves perched upon high 
ground with our garments wet and bedrabbled with the 
soil of Michigan. "^'^^ In the end relief was obtained, 

141. Territorial Laws, II, 744. 

142. History of Jackson County (1881), 170-174; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., II, 276, 281; III, 510. 

143. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 249. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 339 

but seven yokes of oxen were required to free the 
wagons. 

Nevertheless, there seems to have been much travel 
on the road. One pioneer says that from 1832 on- 
ward "covered wagons Hterally whitened its entire 
length. "'^^ According to an advertisement in a De- 
troit paper, a stage line was to begin making regular 
trips over it from Detroit in 1834 to connect with 
Chicago by steamboat at St. Joseph, and to travel the 
entire distance in five days.^^^ In its own interest the 
stage company would probably make some improve- 
ments, but the road appears to have been still barely 
passable in 1835."*^ 

The condition of the Territorial Road, at least before 
1835, is suggested by the fact that settlers frequently 
showed a preference for other and longer routes. Many 
settlers, especially those going into the section farther 
west than Jackson County, preferred to take the 
Chicago Road from Detroit to Coldwater, or to Bron- 
son's Prairie in Branch County, and then go northward 
along the section lines through the openings to points 
on the Territorial Road.^'*^ From Kalamazoo County 
a frequent route east in this period was by way of 

144. Ibid., II, 194. This does not quite equal the statement that 

travel was so great in 1836-37 that at Paw Paw "travelers 
offered as high as a dollar for the privilege of leaning 
against a post." History of Berrien and Van Bur en 
Counties (1880), 508. 

145. Farmer, History of Detroit, ^^^. 

146. History of Calhoun County (1877), 150; History of Berrien 

and Van Bur en Counties (1880), 375. The road appears 
not to have been surveyed through Van Buren County 
until 1836. Ibid., 51. 

147. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 428; History of Calhoun 

County (1877), 150. 



340 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

White Pigeon and the Chicago Road to Monroe. ^^^ 
Frequently a traveler used one route in going and 
another in returning."^ 

Village life in this part of the section naturally re- 
ceived more development than farther west, and it 
was the most vigorous directly on the Territorial Road 
and the Kalamazoo River. . This is perhaps best ex- 
emplified in Marshall. Though Jackson, Marshall and 
Kalamazoo were platted at about the same time 
(1830-31), Marshall seems from the first to have taken 
the lead; for while Jackson's immediate environment 
was a severe handicap, Kalamazoo suffered from lack 
of harmony among its proprietors. 

Marshall was largely indebted for the vigor of its 
early growth to the superior energy, foresight and 
practical wisdom of its promoters. Three factors 
in this personal element should be specially noted. 
Sidney Ketchum, the first actual settler within the 
limits of the present city, before coming to Michigan, 
resided in western New York. In the words of one 
apparently qualified to speak of him, his "command- 
ing presence, air of confidence and honesty, and ready 
command of most convincing language," together with 
prime business ability, made him for this section 
"the mighty moving power in all the financial matters 
of that early period. "^^° Reverend John D. Pierce^" 
and Isaac E. Crary,^^" were close friends and co-workers 

148. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXX, 452; History of Kalamazoo County 

(1880), 353. 

149. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 94. 

150. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 129; II, 236; IV, 173. 

151. Michigan Biographies, 524; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131; II, 

235, 237. 

152. Michigan Biographies, 204; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131 ; II, 235. 



KALAMAZOO VALLFA' AND TERRI'I'ORIAL ROAD 341 

throughout their long Hves in the interests of Marshall 
and Michigan. Their chief services were rendered 
after this period, but they serve to illustrate types of 
Marshall men. 

Mr. Pierce was a native of Chesterfield, New Hamp- 
shire, the native State of Governor Cass. He spent 
the most of his life before the age of twenty at Wor- 
cester, one of the normal-school cities of Massachu- 
setts. After graduating from Brown University and 
holding several positions the last of which was a short 
pastorate in Oneida County, New York, he came to 
western Michigan as a missionary under the auspices 
of the Home Missionary Board. ^''■'^ He made Marshall 
his headquarters and for many years was the strongest 
religious influence in Calhoun, Jackson and Eaton 
counties, the chief scene of his missionary labors. The 
opportunity for influence in public affairs of the Ter- 
ritory and State came through his appointment as the 
first State Superintendent of Public Instruction; his 
plans for education in Michigan were adopted almost 
in their entirety by the legislature of 1837. Mr. Crary, 
through whose advice to Governor Mason, Mr. Pierce 
secured this office, was a native of Preston, Connecti- 
cut, and was educated for the law.^^"* He was a mem- 
ber of the constitutional conventions of 1835 and 1850, 
and from 1835 to 1841 was the sole representative from 
Michigan in Congress; during this time he was largely 

153. For the early life of Pierce, before coming to Michigan, see 

Hoyt and Ford, Life and Times of John D. Pierce, Sd-ll, 
and for his life and missionary work at Marshall and 
vicinity, Ibid., 73-78. 

154. For a brief account of the relations of Crary and Pierce, see 

Hoyt and Ford's Life and Times of John D. Pierce, 
79-80. 



342 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

instrumental in securing the law giving the State con- 
trol of the sixteenth section of every township for the 
benefit of her common schools. 

"One fact must ever give Calhoun the ascendency," 
writes a visitor to Marshall in a communication to 
the editor of the Detroit Courier for November 6, 1833, 
"I mean the character of the people. They are all well 
educated. . . . It is indeed almost incredible, but 
so it is, that in this spot have gathered as if by com- 
mon consent a body of men from the eastern states 
who must have been the most prominent among their 
former associates. . . . They are doubtless in- 
duced to hazard the temporary inconvenience of a new 
settlement that they may insure to their children that 
independence which otherwise they could have hoped 
to enjoy only during the life time of their parents." 

A sincere faith in a great future for Marshall, and a 
firm determination to achieve it, made these men an 
inspiration to Marshall settlers, but actual conditions 
in this period were far from realizing the ideal. Mar- 
shall aspired to be the State capital. Beautifully 
colored lithographs presented the village in neat well- 
dressed lawns, with flags flying from the buildings and 
from steamboats plying busily on the river. In 1832 
the cholera took many of Marshall's citizens; the 
number has been estimated at from one-seventh to 
one-half of the entire population. ^^^ The fact that 
several prominent citizens held each a number of town 
offices in 1833 probably reflects the sparseness of a busy 
population. ^^'"' 

155. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 131; Clark, Gazetteer (1863), 393. 

156. Mick. Hist. Colls., II, 235. 




REV. JOHN DAVIS PIKRCE 

(79th Ann. Rep. of Supt. of Pub. InslrurlioK. 20) 

First Superintendent of Pulilic- Inst ruetioii, 1836-41. A native of Chestertielii. New Hamp- 
shire a graduate of Brown liiiversit v. and a rhainpion of New Knuland ideals. Froin 1831 as 
home missionary resident at Marshall he conducted the first religious meetniss to l)e held in 
Jack.son, Calhoun anil Eaton counties, and later exerted a strong influence m shapinj; the public 
■school system of Michigan. His bust of which the above is a copy was presented in 19H) by the 
teachers of Michigan to the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, and is placeil near the 
entrance to the Department of Public Instruction in the Capitol at Lansing. See p. 341. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL'\L ROAD 343 

In 1833 the village had a number of log dwellings, 
a store, a hotel, a sawmill and a gristmill.^" "The 
house was indeed not as yet plastered inside," says a 
visitor, describing the new inn, "and the different bed- 
rooms, though lathed, seemed divided from each other 
by lines rather imaginary than real; but the bar-room 
wore already the insignia of a 'ong established inn in 
an old community; and apprized me at once, by the 
placarded sheriff's notices and advertisements for 
stolen horses, grain to be sold, and labourers wanted, 
which indicate the growth of business in country life, 
that society was in a pretty mature state — at least 
six months old — in the county town of Marshall. "^^^ 

Even at this early date Marshall citizens were con- 
sidering the possibility of a railroad through the Kala- 
mazoo Valley. Among the notices at the inn was a 
call for a railroad meeting which this traveler attended 
in the evening and which he describes as growing 
"unpleasantly warm" over the route to be recom- 
mended to the legislature. Said one elderly pioneer, 
"This pother reminds me of two trappers who, in plan- 
ning a spearing expedition for the next day, quarrelled 
about the manner in which a turtle, which they pro- 
posed taking, should be cooked for their supper, after 
the day's sport was over. An old Indian happily set- 
tled the difficulty, by proposing that they should first 
catch the turtle." "Now, sir, as to this railroad, the 
case is not at all parallel," interrupted a still more 
ancient speaker, "for Nature has already caught the 

157. Clark, Gazetteer (1863), 393; Hist, oj Calhoun County (1877), 

50. 55. 

158. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 187. 



344 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

turtle for us. She meant the raih'oad to pass right 
along here and nowhere else."^^^ 

It is significant of the alertness and enterprizing 
character of these settlers that they should have been 
seriously discussing the possibility of a railroad _ for 
their village when only a few miles of road had yet 
been laid even in the New England States. ^'"^ "One of 
the most flourishing villages of the peninsula," is the 
opinion expressed of Marshall by Blois in 1838.^" It 
then had according to his account two hotels, two 
weekly newspapers, a dozen stores, a handsome stone 
church and about one thousand people. 

Kalamazoo was a vigorous rival to Marshall. By 
the removal of the land office thither from White 
Pigeon in 1834, the village was visited from far and 
near by settlers in central and western Michigan to 
enter their lands. With the land office went the 
newspaper published at White Pigeon, which was 
issued in that year from its new quarters as the Kala- 
mazoo Gazette, destined to be a strong medium of 
publicity for the village. A branch of the Bank of 
Michigan established there in that year greatly helped 
settlement by facilitating exchange. ^^^ A contem- 

159. Hoffman, .4 Winter in the West, I, 190. 

160. A communication from Marshall to the editor of the De- 

troit Courier for November 13, 1833, points out the ad- 
vantages to Detroit and the interior to be derived from 
a railroad through the Kalamazoo" Valley. Apparently 
from the same source appears in the same paper for De- 
cember 11, 1833, an estimate of the resources of the in- 
terior as a basis for the support of a railroad, based 
upon a comparison with what has been done in wheat- 
growing in eight years in western New York. 

161. Blois, Gazetteer, 319. 

162. Ross and Catlin, Landmarks of Detroit, 436. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL\L ROAD 345 

porary estimates that the vihage had in 1834 about a 
dozen dwelHngs and a hundred permanent inhabi- 
tants.^*^^ 

A new impulse came to the village in 1836^^'^ when 
Titus Bronson sold out to a company of men among 
whom was the enterprizing surveyor, speculator and 
politician, Lucius Lyon. The nervous stir of business 
in that year is reflected in the feeling of the visiting 
agents of a Clinton County colony come to register 
land, who were ''glad to get away because it was like 
town meeting here every day (Sundays except ed)."^®^ 
The growth of trade at the close of the period is only 
approximately indicated by the eight stores placed to 
its credit by Blois, which puts it somewhat below 
Marshall in this respect. ^'^'^ 

Schools and churches early received attention. The 
Baptists appear to have been the most numerous and 
active, making in 1835 those beginnings which were to 
develop into Kalamazoo College.^" In the same year 

163. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 150. 

164. Ibid., XVIII, 599. Up to this time the village had borne 

the name of Bronson. The new proprietors had it 
legally changed to Kalamazoo. Bronson, said to have 
been practically beaten out of his property, appears to 
have emigrated at that time to Rock Island, 111., and 
later to Davenport, Iowa, an illustration of the way in 
which the lands further west often received settlers. 

165. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties (1880), 424. 

166. Gazetteer of Michigan, 307. 

167. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 528, McLaughlin, Higher 

Education in Michigan, 135. The Baptist school of this 
period was known as the Michigan and Huron Insti- 
tution. The Principal of its academic department in 
1837 was a graduate of Middlebury College, Connecticut, 
who was later succeeded by a graduate of Brown Univer- 
sity. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 529-530. 



346 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

a branch of the University was estabHshed there, 
which is said to have soon attracted attention from all 
parts of the State and from neighboring states for its 
superior educators. ^"^^ Blois mentions in his Gazetteer 
of 183 8/*^^ a Presbyterian Church, but not one of the 
Baptist denomination. 

The unpropitious environment of the site of Jack- 
son has been mentioned. The proprietors of the plat, 
however, exerted themselves to make the village a 
success. In the Northwestern Journal of May 5, 1830, 
information appears, apparently from that source, that 
unprecedented emigration to the village, considering 
the season of the year, had already begun; the village 
possessed the county seat, being at the center of the 
county; it was sponsored by enterprizing and influen- 
tial men; a sawmill was to be in operation by Jtme, 
and a gristmill as soon as possible; the place would 
probably be the center of population in a few years; 
eight Indian trails crossed there "each of which would 
eventually be an important road leading to the capital 
of Michigan." But six years later the Detroit Daily 
Free Press of January 18, 1836, confesses that "the 
operation of various causes, unconnected with its real 
advantages, has heretofore restrained the growth of 
this place." 

The year 1836 appears to mark the first real impulse 
to Jackson's settlement. The paper above quoted for 
January 21 of that year comments editorially on the 
rapid sale of lots in Jackson, operated by the Michigan 
Land Agency at Detroit. Aside from the pervading 

168. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 418, 419; X, 26; XVII, 307. 

169. Gazetteer oj Michigan, 306. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 347 

Spirit of speculation and the buying up of agricultural 
lands in the neighborhood, it is probable that the pro- 
jects of a canal to connect the Grand and the Huron 
rivers and of the Central Railroad through the Kalama- 
zoo Valley, were large factors in encouraging immigra- 
tion and investment. The first frame buildings appear 
to have been erected at that time,^^° indicating the ac- 
tivity of mills, and the slowness of previous growth 
appears in the total of twenty-six buildings in 1837.^^^ 
Not until the latter year was the first courthouse 
built. ^^'^ The State prison was secured in the same 
year by a liberal donation of land for its use.^'^''^ A 
newspaper was started^'''* and a branch of the Uni- 
versity was established there. The rapidity of the 
growth of Jackson in that year appears in nearly 
treble the number of buildings, and in a population of 
about 400.^^^ The financial panic seems to have borne 
less hard on Jackson than on many neighboring vil- 
lages, for the population is said to have nearly trebled 
in the following two years; 1839 appears to have been 
a year of strong impulse to its growth. ^^"^ 

The combined influence of the Territorial Road and 
the Kalamazoo River led to the founding of several 
other river villages of which some are today cities of 
importance. Among these mention has already been 
made of Battle Creek and Albion. Others of almost 



170. 


Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 297. 


171. 


History of Jackson County (1881), 238. 


172. 


Ibid., 578. 


173. 


Ibid., 571. 


174. 


Ibid., 421; quoting the Jacksonburg Sentinel; Mich. Hist. 




Colls., II, 323. 


175. 


Ibid., 495. 


176. 


Ibid., 495. 



348 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

as much promise in this period were Comstock, Au- 
gusta and Galesburg, Barry and Grass Lake. 

Battle Creek, notwithstanding its excellent water 
power and the early eager rivalry to secure control of 
it, appears to have been slow in securing mills, and 
its settlement in this period was correspondingly tardy. 
A census of the male inhabitants said to have been 
taken by a contemporary in 1835 numbered about 
fifteen.^" The village was comparatively late in plat- 
ting (1836) and it saw no frame house erected until 
the last year of the period. ^^^ A curious lack of en- 
terprize *is shown so late as 1845 by the apparent 
necessity, if true, of raising by subscription from the 
citizens a sufficient fund to start a newspaper.^^^ A 
somewhat better impression is gained from the account 
given by Blois for 1838, crediting the village with a 
sawmill, two gristmills, two taverns, six stores, a 
saddlery, a cabinet manufactory, two smitheries, 
several machine shops and a banking association. ^^° It 
is worthy of note in view of the prominent part taken 
later by Battle Creek as a station on the "under- 
ground railroad," that the Quakers appear to have 
formed a considerable part of its population as early as 
1836-37.^^1 



177. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 221. 

178. Ibid., Ill, 348. 

179. Ibid., Ill, 350. 

180. Gazetteer of Michigan, 251. 

181. History of Calhoun County (1877), Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XXXVIII, 284. They appear to have had a church 
there in 1843. The State organ of the Michigan Aboli- 
tionists was printed there, its editor being the resident 
agent for the "underground railroad." The antislav^ery 
sentiment was strong throughout the count3^ History 
of Calhoun County, 23-24. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRLfORIAL ROAD 349 

At Albion, though the lands covering the water 
power were purchased early, mills and the accompany- 
ing village beginnings apparently did not materialize 
until 1836. The impulse of 1836 was due to the Albion 
Company, whose leading spirit came from Oswego 
County, New York.^^^ That year saw the first frame 
house. ^^^ Mills were built, and in 1838 the village with 
some forty dwellings appears to have been in about 
the same stage of growth as Battle Creek. ^^■^ Its posi- 
tion a mile and a half south of the Territorial Road 
was an initial handicap, but it was on the surveyed 
road from Marshall to Monroe and also on the located 
route of the Central Railroad. Albion College is said 
to have had beginnings in neighboring settlements as 
early as 1835 but seems not to have been a considerable 
influence at Albion until 1839;^'^^ its establishment ap- 
pears to have been largely due to the patronage of the 
Albion Company. ^^*^ 

Comstock, on the river four miles east of Kalamazoo, 
is a type of the village foimded and fostered by the 
individual pioneer capitalist. It was platted as early 
as 1831, and had high grade business management and 
extensive capital in its service. Its founder, Gen. 
Horace H. Comstock of Cooperstown, New York,^" 

182. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 212. 

183. Ihid., XXXVIII, 213. 

184. Blois, Gazetteer, 247. 

185. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 205; McLaughlin, Higher Education 

in Michigan, 145. It appears not to have been opened 
there until 1843. 

186. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 212. 

187. His wife was related closely to James Fenimore Cooper, 

whose Oak-Openings is said to have resulted from an 
interest in the Kalamazoo Valley initiated by the rela- 
tionship. 



350 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

was interested financially in a number of enterprizes, 
among them the settlements at Otsego and at the 
mouth of the Kalamazoo. ^^^ Had the village been 
successful in its struggles with Kalamazoo for the 
county seat it might well have overshadowed that 
village and become itself the present-day city.'^^^ 
Seven years of growth left it with little more than the 
mills and the improvements made by its founder. ^^*^ 

Augusta and Galesburg were barely beginning in 
1837. Augusta, twelve miles east of Kalamazoo, had 
a tavern, two sawmills and several dwellings in 1838. 
It received its initial impulse from the Augusta Com- 
pany in 1836.^^^ Galesburg was platted in 1837.^^^ 
From six to nine miles on either side of Jackson at 
power sites and on the Territorial Road were Leoni, or 
Grass Lake postoffice, and Barry, each with a sawmill 
and a couple of stores. ^^^ 

Several influences operated to deflect settlement from 
this central line of the river and road. They were 
principally, (1) the prairie settlements, (2) the still 
unoccupied openings and plains, (3) the grazing lands 
on the "wet prairies" and in the creek bottoms, (4) 

188. Thomas, History of Allegan Cotinty, 47. 

189. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 362. 

190. Blois, Gazetteer, 266. 

191. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 357, 386; History of Kalamazoo County 

(1880), 492; Blois, Gazetteer, 249. The name is from 
Augusta, Maine, the home of a leading member of the 
company. 

192. History of Kalamazoo County (1880), 377. 

193. Blois, Gazetteer, 250, 311; Mich. Hist Colls., V, 347. Grass 

Lake was nearly as old as Jackson. The original settle- 
ment was about a mile west of the present site, being 
removed to its present place by the establishment of the 
depot there on the Central Railroad in 1842. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRLIORLXL ROAD 351 

power sites on tributary streams, (5) the Chicago 
Road, and (6) the rising value and scarcity of good 
land untaken along the Kalamazoo River. 

In Kalamazoo County, newly arriving immigrants 
chose first the best available land near the established 
prairie centers of settlement. It is said that of the 
places regularly visited by a pioneer preacher in 1833 
whose field included ten settlements in that county, 
only two were not on the prairies, and those two were 
on the river at Kalamazoo and Comstock.^^* The 
attraction of the settlements on Prairie Ronde and 
Gourdneck prairies influenced immigration especially 
from the states immediately south of Michigan, al- 
though by 1835 there seem to have been a great many 
Vermont immigrant s.^^^ As noted above, the settle- 
ment on Prairie Ronde secured a strong foothold early. 
The prairie is mentioned in the Detroit Free Press- of 
September 13, 1832, as "largely settled," and notice is 
taken of the section of timber near its center. In 1833 
the village of Schoolcraft forming on the eastern bor- 
der of this woodland was the center of a neighboring 
prairie population said to have numbered about three 
hundred. ^^® Schoolcraft was platted in 1831, at about 
the same time as the larger river villages of this sec- 
tion and those on the Chicago Road. Inside of two 
years the land adjacent to the plat is said to have 
readily found buyers at $12 an acre in cash.^" In 1838 
Blois credits the village with three stores, and men- 
tions what was apparently a rival village just starting 

194. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 159. 

195. Ihid., XXX, 457. 

196. Ihid., XXVII, 449. 

197. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVII, 449; XXX, 453v 



352 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

near the same site, called Charleston. ^^^ The popula- 
tion of the township of Prairie Ronde in 1837 was 665, 
including an area equal to a Government township, 
while immediately east and north for an area four 
times as large, 1292 are recorded. ^^^ 

Across the county northeast of Kalamazoo on Gull 
Prairie there was a village center apparently quite as 
large as that on Prairie Ronde. Blois mentions the 
village as Geloster, crediting it with four stores. ^°° 
The population of the civil township including it 
(Richland), covering the two northeastern government 
townships, was in 1837, 720.-°^ The nucleus of this 
settlement was made by the "Kalamazoo Emigration 
Society of Michigan," which was formed in 1830 at 
Hudson, Ohio, near the Ohio home of Titus Bronson, 
founder of Kalamazoo.^"- The resolutions adopted by 
this society are worthy of note for the light they throw 
on the nature of the original Gull Prairie colony and 
as reflecting much the same educational, religious and 
social spirit as the "Constitution" of the later Ver- 
mont colony at Vermontville in Eaton County. Some 
of the resolutions are as follows : 

"3. Christian principles, and the injunctions of the 
Gospel shall be adhered to generally; and as soon as a 
sufficient nrunber of professing Christians shall have 
emigrated, a Congregational Church shall be organized 

198. Gazetteer of Michigan, 262, 360. 

199. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 71 ; Session Laws (1835-36), 

75. This area contained the mill village of Vicksburg, 
which was also a prairie settlement. History of Kalama- 
zoo County (1880), 523. 

200. Gazetteer of Mich., 2^9. 

201 . Mich . Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 

202. Northwestern Journal, March 31 and June 30, 1830, 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 353 

and a Gospel Minister procured and supported. — 4. 
Common and Sabbath Schools shall early be estab- 
lished and supported; and, if circumstances seem to re- 
quire it, an Academical Institution. — 5. The use of 
ardent spirits, either directly or indirectly, shall not be 
allowed by this society, except as a medicine. — 6. Those 
desirous of removing to the Kalamazoo, having the 
good of their posterity, and of the community in gen- 
eral, at heart; being wilHng to assist and alleviate a 
fellow citizen in distress, which is also considered obli- 
gatory ; and to adhere to the rules of Christian morality 
and temperance, as specified above, will receive the 
encouragement and support of this Society." 

The Gull Prairie settlement early became one of the 
best known and most widely influential settlements in 
the Kalamazoo Valley; indeed it seems to have been 
more actively central to the region than Kalamazoo 
village. 

In a less degree a similar influence was exerted by 
Cook's Prairie and Dry Prairie in the southern part of 
Calhoun County. On Cook's Prairie in the southeast, 
the village of Homer was platted by 1834, which ap- 
pears to have been partly motivated by the water 
power afforded there by a branch of the Kalamazoo. ^°^ 
The first mills were built there by a stock company in 
1837-38, until which time growth was relatively slow,'^°'* 
yet Homer Township, the same size as Richland, which 
included Gull Prairie, is credited by the census of 1837 

203. Homer and its Pioneers, 36; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 232. 

204. Ibid., 37. These mills are said to have cost $20,000, a 

comparatively large outlay at that time. 
45 



354 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

with a population one-sixth larger than the latter. ^"^ 
The village had then a store and about two hundred 
people. -^"^ Its initial impulse seems to have come from 
Lyons, New York.^°^ The attraction of Dry Prairie, 
whose settlement began at about the same time, ap- 
pears to have been less — to judge from the rural popu- 
lation and from no mention of a village by Blois. The 
entire southwestern quarter of the county in which it 
was located was in 1837 the least settled portion, con- 
taining in its two townships of Athens and Burlington 
only a few over six hundred people. ^°^ But the settle- 
ment of this prairie was partly shared by northern 
Branch County, and the neighboring Branch village of 
Union City appears to have supplied its village 
needs. 

In the oak openings between Dry and Cook's prairies, 
which were about half way between the Chicago and 
Territorial roads, there were by 1834 several scattered 
purchases. The center of the population there in 
1836 was recognized by the organization of the small 
township of Tekonsha, which in the following year 
had 278 people. -°^ A village of the same name at a 
power site on a branch of the St. Joseph River formed 
its nucleus in 1838 with a population of 150.^^° 

A point early settled and very well known, illustrat- 
ing settlement on the plains, was Spring Arbor at the 

205. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70; Session Laws 

(1835-36), 74; (1837), 39. 

206. Gazetteer of Mich., 301. 

207. Homer and its Pioneers, 36. 

208. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

209. Ibid., 70. 

210. Blois, Gazetteer, 373. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 355 

site of an Indian village on an extensive burr-oak plain 
about nine miles southwest of Jackson. -^^ It appears 
to have lacked water power and had in 1838 only a 
store and a few dweUings, though the surrounding 
township was among the few in the county which had 
the small area of a Government township as early as 
1836."^^ The existence of settlement on the meadow 
lands in the southeastern part of Jackson County as 
early as 1833 is obvious from the township of Napoleon 
organized in that year,^^^ but township organization 
there in this period proceeded more slowly than else- 
where. Some of the motives of the first settlers of the 
region are said to have been to secure from the settle- 
ments on the Chicago Road patronage for their saw 
mill, which was supplied with water power from a 
head branch of the Grand River. ^^^ 

A measure of light is shed upon the general progress 
of settlement by the early interrelations of settle- 
ments, especially by their dependence upon each other 
for mills, mail and merchandise. For these conven- 
iences the early settlements of Kalamazoo County de- 
pended much upon those of St. Joseph and Cass. 
White Pigeon was the early supply station for the 
Prairie Ronde settlers; and White Pigeon and School- 
craft became supporting points for the northern part 
of Kalamazoo County. The early relations were close 
between Prairie Ronde and Kalamazoo; the first set- 
tler of Kalamazoo spent his first winter (1829-30) with 

211. Ibid., 364. 

212. Session Laws (1835-36), 72, 73. 

213. Territorial Laws, III, 996; Mich. Hist. Coll., IV, 276-281. 

214. History of Jackson County (1881), 776. Blois (p. 371) men- 

tions the small village of Swainsville there. 



356 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the Prairie Ronde settlers, ^^^ and the owner of the 
store at Schoolcraft established the first store at 
Kalamazoo. ^^"^ In 1834 the proprietor of Schoolcraft 
village was also one of the four proprietors of Kala- 
mazoo.-^^ Vicksburg, settled from Prairie Ronde, fur- 
nished the sole supply of grists to Kalamazoo and to 
the entire county until the building of the mill at 
Comstock in 1832.218 

In Van Buren County the first settlement was close- 
ly related with the older prairie settlements. In 1833 
the water power at the site of Paw Paw began to be 
improved by prospectors from Prairie Ronde, "^^ and 
pioneer trade relations naturally followed between 
Prairie Ronde and Paw Paw.--° The first settlement 
in the eastern part of Allegan County was made largely 
from Gull Prairie ; indeed the settlement of the eastern 
parts of Allegan and Van Buren counties may be re- 
garded as extensions of the settlement in Kalamazoo 
and Cass."'^ 

The early relations of the eastern portion of the sec- 
tion appear to have been closest with Dexter and Ann 
Arbor, in Washtenaw Count}^-" Though good har- 
vests had made the river settlements self-sustaining by 
1831, the lack of mills entailed the inconvenience of 
long trips; for example, the nearest grist mill to Jack- 

215. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 365-366. 

216. Ibid., I, 210; XXX, 452. 

217. Ibid., V, 365, 375; XIII, 325; XXVII, 449. 

218. Ibid., V, 362. 

219. History of Berrien and Van Buren Counties (1880), 506. 

220. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 644. 

221. Thomas, History of Allegan County, 38. 

222. History of Jackson County (1881), 170-174; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., II, 281, 283; V, 351; XVIII, 612. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORL'VL ROAD 357 

son was for several years at Dexter, the round trip 
requiring nearly a week;-^^ and Marshall sent to Dex- 
ter for flour until 1832.^-^ The first mail route to con- 
nect these settlements came from Ann Arbor through 
Jackson in 1831, joining the Chicago Road at White 
Pigeon.--^ The settlements in southeastern Jackson 
County, which were but three miles from the Chicago 
Road, had mail connections at Springville in Lenawee 
County."-'^ Battle Creek's early dependence upon 
Bellevue in Eaton County for lumber marks the be- 
ginning of relationships with the settlements north of 
this section.^" 

The retarding influences of a general nature men- 
tioned as affecting the Territory as a whole were of 
course felt in this section. The most prominent were 
the "fever and ague," the epidemic of cholera, and 
the Black Hawk War. The first appears to be a con- 
comitant of all early settlement in this part of Michi- 
gan, due to the prevalence of the mosquito; though the 
early pioneers and travelers referred it uniformly to 
another cause: 

"Think but of people," says an early visitor to this 
section, "setting themselves down on a soil of twenty 
inches in depth, and in the month of June, when the 
weeds and wild flowers o'ertop the head of the tallest 
man, turning over the rank soil immediately around 
their dwellings, and allowing the accumulation of 
vegetable decomposition to be acted upon by a ver- 

223. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 285. 

224. Ibid., I, 131. 

225. Ibid., II, 292. 

226. Ibid., IV, 276; Blois, Gazetteer, 364. 

227. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 221. 



358 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tical sun, and steam up for months under their very 
nostrils; and yet this, I am told, is continually prac- 
tised by settlers who come late in the season, and are 
anxious still to have a crop the first year. Here, as in 
the case of those settlers who, for the sake of the wild 
hay, locate themselves near the great marshes, im- 
prudence alone is manifested ; but the charge of culpa- 
bility will justly attach to some other cases, where 
nuisances, not before existing, are created by the 
owners of property. I allude to the practice, expressly 
prohibited by the laws of Michigan, of flooding land 
while constructing mill-ponds without removing the 
green timber growing upon the spot. So pernicious is 
this to the health of the neighborhood, that it affects 
very sensibly the value of property near the new 
pond; and yet, in their eagerness to have mills erected, 
and aid the market of their overflowing granaries, the 
new inhabitants overlook entirely the gross violation 
of their laws, and the melancholy consequences which 
ensue to their families.'"'-*^ 

In 1832 the Black Hawk War caused in the whole 
section a state of suspense and alarm, while from the 
cholera the danger was real. It is said that as a re- 
sult of it, spring work was largely abandoned by set- 
tlers, and immigration almost ceased. -^^ In 1833 at a 
congressional election which probably represented the 
voting strength, the township of Marshall, which in- 
cluded Marshall village and two-fifths of Calhoun 
County, -^'^ polled only nineteen votes; on the same 

228. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 193. 

229. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 294. 

230. Territorial Laws, III, 1003. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRITORIAL ROAD 359 

day only eight votes were cast in that township for a 
representative in the Territorial legislature.^''^ 

The amount of growth in population by the end of 
1834 presents striking similarities and differences in the 
several counties of the section. Those which ranked 
first and last in this respect were the adjacent coiuities 
of Kalamazoo and Van Buren. Kalamazoo County re- 
ceived its first settlers in 1828 and was organized but 
two years later; by the census of 1834 it lacked but a 
few hundred people to equal the combined population 
of Calhoun and Jackson counties, having a population 
of 3,124 to Jackson's 1,865 and Calhoun's 1,714.^-^- Of 
the counties of this section none appeared in the na- 
tional census of 1830, and Allegan and Van Buren 
counties did not appear in the Territorial census of 
1834. They were not yet organized at that time; Van 
Buren was organized in 1837.-^^ As a whole this sec- 
tion lacked at least 2,500 people of equalling, in 1834, 
the population of the St. Joseph Valley, and it had 
considerably less than one half of the population of 
the single county of Washtenaw. ^^"^ 

The relative rate of settlement and the distribution 
of population in the several counties of the section 
before 1835 may be made clearer by the following 
table, in which the large figures under the years denote 
the number of townships existing in each year in a given 
county; the double-dagger is placed under the year of 



23L Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 196. 

232. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 

233. Session Laws (1837), 97. 

234. Blois, Gazetteer, 151. 



360 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



county organization; the small numbers refer to the 
foot note."^^ 





1830 


1831 


1832 


1833 


1834 


1835 


1836 


1837 


Kalamazoo 

Jackson 

Calhoun 


t2' 
1^ 




32 
V 


4« 
t3' 


43 




5.6 
10'« 

8.4 

420 


§17 

13" 


49 


5'^ 
pi 


1116 


Allegan 








Van Buren 








+712 

















The township organization of Kalamazoo suggests a 
very even and gradual development there. Appar- 
ently the first township organizations were serviceable 
longer than elsewhere in the section, partly because of 
the unusual openness of the country which made it 
easy for settlers to get to town meeting from a con- 
siderable distance. This appears to be one meaning 
of the long life of the large township of Brady in the 
southern part of the county. In Calhoun and Jackson 
counties the similarity in. township organization was 

235^ 1. Territorial Laws, III, 836, 839, 840—2. Ibid., Ill, 972— 
3. Ibid., Ill, 1,277—4. Ibid., Ill, 839—5. Ibid., Ill, 
929, 948, 957—6. Ibid., Ill, 998—7. Ibid., Ill, 972— 
8. Ibid., Ill, 984, 1,003—9. Ibid., Ill, 1,277—10. Ibid., 
Ill, 997—11. Ibid., IV, 136—12. Session Laws (1837), 
97 — 13. Territorial Laws, III, 1,368 — 14. Session Laws 
(1835-36), 74, 75—15. Ibid., (1837), 39—16. Ibid., (1835- 
36), 75— 17. Ibid., (1837), 35— 18. Ibid., (1835-36), 72, 
73, 74—19. Ibid., (1837), 35, 36, 40—20. Ibid., (1835- 
36), 76—21. Territorial Laws, III, 1,403. 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRrrORL\L ROAD 361 

very close. The first three townships in each of these 
counties centered about three important points in 
each, all six of them on the Territorial Road and the 
Kalamazoo River. In Jackson County these were 
Grass Lake, Jackson village and Spring Arbor; in 
Calhoun County, Albion, Marshall and Battle Creek. 
In 1834 their four townships corresponded exactly in 
position and area, the fourth township in each case 
representing a strong deflecting influence in the south- 
east. In Jackson county this -influence was the graz- 
ing lands, the power on the Grand River, and the 
nearness to the Chicago Road; in Calhoun County, 
the prairies and water power in the vicinity of Homer. 
The comparatively rapid formation of townships in 
Jackson and Calhoun counties reflects not only the 
increase of population but the need of closer organiza- 
tion in counties less easily traversed than Kala- 
mazoo. 

In the Hght of the conditions presented, the main 
causes of differences in amount of population become 
clear The comparatively advanced state of settle- 
ment in the west of the section was due to its early 
start in Kalamazoo County, which by virtue of its 
position and extensive prairie land, shared in the 
tide of immigration coming northward from prairie 
regions to Cass and St. Joseph counties. The position 
of Jackson County, farthest east, close to the rapidly 
settling lands of Washtenaw, and on the south close to 
the Chicago Road, together with the opening of its 
lands to sale before any others in this section, prob- 
ably went far towards inducing early settlement. But 
the tide of immigration did not flow strongly towards 



362 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

it from the east until 1833, while the intervention of 
available lands on the south shut it out practically 
from the southern immigration. The middle position 
of Calhoun County, together with much prairie land 
on the side towards Kalamazoo, gave it a double ad- 
vantage; but neighboring counties tended to intercept 
population, the influence on the west being especially 
strong. As a result its growth in population tended 
to approximate that of Jackson County. Allegan 
and Van Buren counties seem almost to belong to 
a separate settlement area, to include Berrien on 
the south and Ottawa on the north; yet the most 
striking common physiographic feature of these coun- 
ties, the lake shore, did not materially affect their 
settlement until the period of commercial develop- 
ment on Lake Michigan. The largest common factor 
in the retardation of their settlement was their dis- 
tance from the older settlements, due to several causes: 
the general direction from which immigration came, the 
intervention of lands eastward within comparatively 
easy reach having equal physical advantages, and the 
added increment of value due to nearness to large 
markets and supply depots absorbing the attention and 
interest of settlers. 

Within three years the immigration from the East 
coming by the Territorial Road had reversed the order 
of relative numerical superiority due to the earlier 
immigration from Ohio and Indiana. Instead of Kala- 
mazoo County, Jackson County had first place. The 
central cause, the direction of immigration, is seen in 
the circumstance that the population grew less for each 
succeeding county westward — 8702, 7960, 6367, 1469, 



KALAMAZOO VALLEY AND TERRFIORIAL ROAD 363 

1262^^*— as also the number of townships in each,^" 
except in Allegan and Van Buren; Van Buren with six 
hundred less people had nearly double the number of 
townships. "■'^''^ The combined population of these two 
counties (3,731) made but little over half of that 
in Kalamazoo (6,367), showing the relatively small 
amount of settlement west of that county; w^hile their 
population, combined with that of Kalamazoo (9,098) 
made but little more than that of Jackson County 
(8,702) at the eastern end of the section. The popula- 
tion of the whole section (25,758) was about equal to 
that of the St. Joseph Valley in Michigan (25,321); in 
the southern section, however, the greater density of 
population was in the west, in the counties of St. 
Joseph and Cass which lay directly south of Kala- 
mazoo. In the northern section the eastern counties 
of Calhoun and Jackson had a much more rapid 
growth than the eastern counties of Branch and Hills- 
dale below them; this was in part due to a greater 
amount of open land and to the nearer prospects of a 
railroad, but mainly to their position directly west 
from Wayne and Washtenaw. 

236. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 7.S. 

237. See table above. 

238. As pointed out elsewhere, the number and size of town- 

ships can not be taken alone as a positive indication of 
relative density of population. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Saginaw Country 

n^HE general physical features of the Saginaw 
country as it was known to most of the actual 
settlers when Michigan became a State are probably 
reflected with fair accuracy by Blois in his Gazetteer of 
Afichigan,^ who describes the surface as undulating or 
rolling, nearly level towards the bay, and the soil as 
varying from a dry sandy loam in the oak openings 
to a rich alluvial formation in the river bottoms. There 
was much marsh land and some scattered patches of 
the so-called "wet prairie," mainly along the lower 
course of the Saginaw. The oak openings are said to 
have been specially adapted to cereals,'' containing 
many old Indian cornfields. The abundant wild hay 
on the marshes, and the grass in the openings, enabled 

1. History of Saginaw County (1881), p. 238; History of Genesee 

County {IS7 9), p. 219; History of Shiawassee and Clinton 
Counties (1880), p. 239; History of Lapeer County, p. 227; 
History of Livingston County, p. 229. Livingston County 
is associated physiographically with the Saginaw Valley 
through branches of the Shiawassee River. Its actual 
settlement was more closely related to that of Oakland 
and Washtenaw counties. 

2. The products of Genesee County in 1850 are said to have 

been chiefly wheat, hay, cattle and sheep. History oj 
Genesee County (1879), 113-115. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 365 

the early settlers to bring their cattle without danger 
of having them starve during the first winters.^ 

While the oak openings covered a large proportion of 
the southern counties of the region a very large part of 
it was heavily forested. Blois estimates that about a 
third of Saginaw County was covered with pine,'' and 
mentions "pineries" along the Flint River and its 
branches in Genesee and Lapeer counties.^ Pine Creek 
in Lapeer County was the site of one of the earliest 
mill settlements in the region. The presence of pine, 
however, seems not to have been regarded by the early 
seeker of farm lands as a favorable condition; sup- 
posedly it indicated an inferior soil and there was the 
obvious disadvantage of density of forest as compared 
with the openings. On these lands lumbering must 
needs precede agriculture. It was not until some years 
after Michigan became a State that the idea of an 
eastern market for Michigan lumber appealed suf- 
ficiently to capital to bring the era of pine lumbering 
to the Saginaw country.*^ 

Water power for the early mills was furnished 
abundantly by four large tributaries of the Saginaw, 
each of which ramified widely. The Tittabawassee and 
Cass rivers drained Saginaw County and the lands to 
the east and west ; the Shiawassee and the Flint reached 
far southward, and their mill sites and fords, crossed at 
points by the chief trails, became the nuclei of the 
earliest white settlements of the region. The Saginaw 

3. History of Livingston Cotmty, 23, 121. 

4. Blois, Gazetteer, 238. 

5. Ibid., 219, 227. 

6. Mich. Hist. Colls. ,YU, 241-242. 



366 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

River is in the nature of a drowned valley, and its 
sluggish current formed by the junction of these four 
rivers near the center of Saginaw County some thirty 
miles from the head of the bay furnished less water 
power but was more navigable than the other streams. 
In the parts of this region bordering upon other sec- 
tions excellent power sites were found by early settlers 
on the Lookingglass, the Maple, the Huron, the Clinton 
and the Belle. 

Among the mineral products of the Saginaw country 
which specially affected its settlement was salt, though 
it was not until late that the salt industry assumed 
commercial importance.^ Its exploitation was contem- 
porary with the real beginnings of pine lumbering, to 
which it was economically related.^ The years before 
1837 mark a period of exploration and experiment 
in both industries.^ 

Settlement in the Saginaw Valley in 1837 was a little 
in advance of that in the Grand River Valley. The 
former region was more easily reached from Detroit and 
the movement of population up the Clinton River and 
out along the Saginaw Trail had started emigration 
thither as early as 1818. But for several serious re- 
tarding influences its settlement would have been much 
more rapid. 

7. The first barrel of salt appears to have been made in the 

Saginaw Valley in 1860. History of Saginaw County, 
295. 

8. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 499. 

9. See Bela Hubbard's account of the geological expedition of 

1837 to the Saginaw country to investigate the salt 
springs. Mich, Hist. Colls., Ill, 189. In Volume IV, 
13, is an analysis of Houghton's report of this ex- 
pedition. See above, Chapter I, for further discussion 
and references. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 367 

The influence of the Indians, trappers and agents 
of the American Fur Company has been mentioned 
frequently. Many of the plats of the United States 
surveyors were made, it is said, from their reports, so 
misleading as to necessitate in many places a total 
resurvey.^° The same influence seems to have been at 
least partly responsible for the gross errors in the re- 
ports made after the War of 1812, that beyond a few 
miles back from Detroit the country was unfit for any- 
thing but wild beasts. ^^ The surveys made afterwards^^ 
furnished abundant materials to correct this view, but 
the legend once fastened on the East took long to 
wear out. 

Among other reports there was an early one that 
the Saginaw Valley was unhealthful. The president 
of the German pioneer society of Saginaw Covmty 
is quoted as saying in an address in 1881, ''The 
country had the name of being very unhealthy and 
deserved it in some respects. "^^ The abandonment of 
the military post at Saginaw by the United States in 
1823, so soon after its occupation, tended to give this 

10. History of Saginaw County, 166. 

11. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 542. See above, chapter I. In 

the Detroit Gazette for June 7, 1822, a writer signing him- 
self "A Traveller" protests against the misrepresentations 
about the Saginaw region by Indian traders and other 
interested persons. 

12. The surveys were in progress in Shiawassee County in 1823, 

Edward Tiffin still acting as surveyor general of the 
United States. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 
ties, 260. The geographer Melish, in the Geographical 
Description of the United States (ed. 1822), p. 389, says, 
"In the new settlement on the Saginaw River the soil is 
also productive." 

13. History of Saginaw County, 221 . 



368 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

report an official stamp which decisively checked the 
plans of intending settlers.^'* Zina Pitcher, the surgeon 
at the post, says that the commanding officer who 
sympathized with his men in the sickness of that year 
reported to the Government that "nothing but Indians, 
muskrats and bullfrogs could possibly exist here."^^ 
The Detroit Gazette of October 3, 1823, mentions the 
Saginaw post as "the only place in the Territory which 
appears now to be afflicted by the usual autumnal dis- 
eases;" though previously it had reported the troops 
to be in excellent health and spirits. ^'^ The conditions 
producing the sickness of that season appear to have 
been exceptional. The event is said to have been 
looked upon by even the Indians and traders as a re- 
markable occurrence. Contemporary accounts ascribe 
it to the long and heavy rains of the preceding sum- 
mer which caused the waters of the Saginaw River to 
overflow the thickly wooded level lands making them 
stagnant and "loading the atmosphere with poisonous 
vapors" during the succeeding warm season. ^^ 

The misfortune appears to have been used by specu- 
lators and promoters interested in the lands near De- 
troit and in the older counties to prejudice settlers 
against the whole region. "If I am correctly in- 

14. History of Genesee County, 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 

487. 

15. History oj Saginaw County, 165. 

16. Detroit Gazette, September 13, 1822; October 11, 1822; 

December 6, 1822. The issue for October 17, 1823, re- 
ported that Major Baker, commandant at Saginaw, lost 
his son and was determined to remove his troops despite 
the fact that they were rapidly recovering. 

17. Detroit Gazette, October 10, 1823; History oJ Saginaw 

County, 165. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 369 

formed," protests a writer in the Detroit Gazette for 
June 27, 1823, "the emigrant no sooner sets his foot 
in Detroit than he is beset by such a muhitude of 
counsellors that he is tempted to believe that there is 
no safety in the covmtry [Saginaw]. I know this was 
the case with myself, as I was told that the counties 
of Monroe, Oakland and Macomb were each respec- 
tively superior to the garden of Eden. These stories 
have operated peculiarly hard upon our section of the 
country and have induced many emigrants to think 
there would be but a loss of time in visiting us at this 
season of the year, without being drowned by the 
freshets, or eaten up by mosquitoes without the cere- 
mony of barbecuing. We are not at all at a loss to 
divine the reasons which induce many of our citizens 
to use every argument to prevent the settlers from 
penetrating into the country and if possible to coax 
them to squat down near Detroit, without having 
examined any part of this great and fertile region. 
But the old traditional legend, that all was an im- 
passable morass beyond Cranberry Marsh, has van- 
ished — and so will the equally unfounded notions which 
now prevail in relation to the beautiful and invaluable 
alluvial districts which border the Saginaw and its 
tributaries." 

In July of 1831 the French writer De Tocqueville 
made a trip on horseback into the Saginaw country 
and on inquiring at Detroit from Major Biddle — for 
many years connected with the United States Land 
Office there — where he might find the least settled 
parts of the Territory, he is said to have been told 
that beyond Pontiac he would find the country "full 

47 



370 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of nothing but Indians and wild beasts;" arriving at 
Pontiac and inquiring again, he was informed that 
Saginaw was "the last inhabited spot towards the 
Pacific."^^ 

It is a luminous comment on human nature and the 
persistence of bad reports that the exceedingly favor- 
able information about the Saginaw country published 
almost simultaneously should have been received so 
tardily. In the Western Gazetteer,^^ published at Au- 
burn, New York, in 1817, is recorded a description of 
the region by Captain Price of the United States Army, 
who crossed it in March of that year in traveling from 
Mackinac to Detroit. He says that he found the lands 
on the Saginaw River "of an excellent quality and 
most beautifully situated," containing large prairies 
"from four to six miles deep." From the Saginaw to 
the Flint he observed that the lands were fertile and 
well timbered; the country between the Flint and the 
Clinton reminded him of Cayuga County, New York,^*^ 
being "clothed with oak, a very open country, and no 
vmderwood, interspersed with small beautiful lakes 
abounding in fish of a superior quality."-^ The ac- 
count also contained a notice of the lands between the 
site of Pontiac and Detroit as "generally a low flat 

18. De Tocqueville, Fortnight in the Wilderness, as quoted in the 

History oj Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 337-338; 
History of Saginaw County, 291. 

19. Brown, Western Gazetteer, 166 n. 

20. It is significant that this country is mentioned more fre- 

quently than any other in the pioneer reminiscences and 
the county histories as a source of immigration to the 
Saginaw Valley. 

21. Substantially the same account is contained in the Emi- 

grant's Directory (p. 694), published in London, England, 
in 1820, though the statement is absent that it was given 
by a United States Army officer. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 371 

country, susceptible of being drained and cultivated, 
the soil deep and rich." Whether this had any con- 
nection, it was in the year following that the explora- 
tion was made from Detroit which resulted in the 
founding of Pontiac and the establishment of Oakland 
County." The Detroit Gazette of November 13, 1818, 
contained "A view of some of the lands in the interior 
of Michigan," exploding entirely the idea of its swampy 
character, being apparently an authorized report of the 
exploring party visiting the vicinity of Pontiac, among 
the members of which was John Monteith, "President 
of the University of Michigan." 

There were numerous other favorable accounts. A 
Detroit Gazette editorial for September 24, 1819, ac- 
knowledges receipt of letters from persons with Gov- 
ernor Cass at Saginaw describing the Saginaw country 
as delightful and the soil as of first quality. In 1821 
an extensive exploring expedition was made by the 
"Sciawassee Company," with the specific purpose of 
"determining the site of a county seat of a coimty to 
be established beyond Oakland ;"^^ the Detroit Gazette 
for November 9, 1821, contains the first number of 
their Journal, which gives a very flattering description 
of the Saginaw country. In 1822 a description of the 
region appeared in a series of articles in the Gazette^"^ 

22. See above, chapter IV. 

23. See the Detroit Gazette, October 5, 1821, for announcement 

of the plan giving the proposed itinerary, to inchide also 
the Grand River country. 

24. Detroit Gazette, February 15 and 22, and March 1. These 

descriptions preceded the period of sickness at the fort. 
See Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 470-475 for the "Journal of a 
Pedestrian Tour from Detroit to Sagana River in 1822," 
containing observ^ations made between May 22 and 
June 4. 



372 ECONQMIC AND SOCIAL HKGINNINGS 

by a writer who had apparently followed the Saginaw 
Indian trail. The Utica (N. Y.) Si'nti}n'l congratu- 
lated the Territory on the establishment of the new- 
federal garrison at Saginaw in that year and spoke 
high praise for Michigan lands. -^ At Philadelphia ap- 
peared a new edition of Alelish's Geographical Descrip- 
tion of the United States which spoke of the "produc- 
tive soil in the new settlement on the Saginaw River. "-'^ 
The increase of immigration with the opening of the 
Erie Canal led to renewed efforts by interested parties 
to attract settlers to the Saginaw country. Early in 
1826 appeared a notice to immigrants soliciting atten- 
tion to the lands of Shiawassee County signed by 
Samuel W. Dexter, founder of the village of Dexter in 
Washtenaw County.-" A description of the Saginaw 
country addressed to immigrants by Pontiac parties in 
1830 reveals a consciousness that the region had a 
strong competitor in southwestern Michigan. "The 
St. Joseph country," says this circular, "has been 
called 'the golden region.' We give no such attractive 
name to the Saginaw. We tell you a plain and true 
story, convinced that when you ha\'e read you will 
determine to make Saginaw your home."-^ Finding 
its way into the Boston Courier this circular prompted 
inquiries of the editor of the Nortlnvesteni Journal (De- 

25. As quoted in the Detroit (jazette, for August 2, 1822. 

26. p. 389. 

27. Detroit Gazette, May 9, 1826. 

28. Northwestern Journal, April 21, 1830. Thc^ points em- 

phasized were navigal3ility of the river for "any lake 
vessel," and the spontaneity of vegetation on the rich 
prairies, emphasis probably thought needful in view of 
the competing St. Joseph country. Fish, timber, salt 
and building stone are also given prominence. 



lUJ-: SAGINAW COUNTRY 373 

troitj about the price of the ?jest land, the price of 
stock, the cost of clearing, the prevalence of "fever and 
ague" and the best season for immigration. The edi- 
tor made highly encouraging replies. ^'-^ The price of 
the best land was $1.25 per acre; a yoke of oxen could 
be bought for between S45 and S55; cows were worth 
from vSlO to S15; land could be cleared for from SI to 
$5; fevers of any kind were uncommon; a journey from 
Detroit to the Saginaw country could be made most 
conveniently between October and February. 

It is probable that the later prejudice against the 
region was in no small degree a survival of that created 
by early misrepresentations.'*^^ In an address before a 
farmer's institute in Saginaw County in 1877, it is said 
that as late as 1860 the general impression of Saginaw 
County was that it could never be even a moderately 
productive farming district. The opinion is said to 
have been shared also by many men identified with 
the interests of that country. The climate was held 
to be too unreliable, being subject to heavy frosts in 
the growing season. It was said that at the date of 

29. Ibid., May 26. The questions came apparently from an 

intending settler. 

30. There appear to have been no newspapers published in the 

Saginaw country before 1837 to herald its attractions, 
excepting the short lived Saginaw Journal, running from 
1836 to 1838. History of Saginaw County, 606. The 
North Star began with the business revival of 1842. 
The Flint River Gazette was published at Flint from 1839 
to 1841. But the first successful paper is said to have 
begun in 1845 or 1850. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 439; 
XXXV, 370. At Owosso a paper, probably shortlived, 
appears to have begun in 1839. History of Clinton and 
Shiawassee Counties, 130. At Howell the first paper was 
published in 1846 (first published at Brighton in 1843). 
History of Livingston County, 35; Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 
86; XXXVIII, 180; Crittenden, History of Howell, 72. 



374 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

this address there were many people in the southern 
counties who, uncertain of its situation, euphoniously 
associated Saginaw with Mackinaw. The country was 
believed to have a large proportion of swamp and 
marsh land, and the surface was supposed to be too 
flat to secure good drainage; nor did "pine barrens," 
as the pine lands were called, sound inviting /'^^ 

While the traders probably had a share in creating 
and fostering this bad reputation, many of them 
proved to be more than traders and gradually adjusted 
themselves to the new order. As noted above, most 
of them were agents of the American Fur Company. 
Their operations had been interrupted by the War of 
1812 but took on new energy with the conclusion of 
peace; the Saginaw Indian treaty of 1819 and the 
establishment of the garrison on the Saginaw aimed 
to protect the fur trade as well as to invite and en- 
courage agriculture.^^ When the troops were with- 
drawn in 1824 the American Fur Company established 
a post in the abandoned fort, and its agents became 
the first promoters of the future city of Saginaw. 

31. History of Saginaw County, 292, 298. 

32. The Saginaw Indians are said to have been the least friendly 

of all of the tribes. Detroit Gazette, November 30, 1821 ; 
History of Saginaw County, 164. The passions engen- 
dered by the War of 1812 still smoldered, and many 
are the contemporary charges against the British for 
fanning the embers. The traders, being more closely 
identified with the life and interests of the Indians, 
appear to have had on the whole little trouble with 
them. It appears also that when the Indians were well 
treated by the new settlers they were generally peaceable 
towards them. See letter of the settler Stevens, written 
in 1825 from Grand Blanc, quoted in the History of 
Genesee County, 33; see also History of Shiawassee and 
Clinton Counties, 281 and History of Livingston County, 14. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 375 

These traders were widely affiliated both by birth 
and education with Canada and the bordering states. 
Some of them appear to have been men of no mean 
ability. Louis Campau, whose services to white set- 
tlement entitle him to be called the first real pioneer 
of the Saginaw Valley, is described as "an intelHgent, 
shrewd, far-seeing operator. "^■'^ He was a native of 
Detroit, one of a large family of French-Canadians em- 
ployed chiefly in the fur trade. The History of Sagi- 
naiv County mentions a score of traders prominent in the 
Saginaw region before 1820,^^ some from the vicinity 
of Montreal and Quebec, some of German descent; 
one was the son of the postmaster at Schenectady, 
New York.^^ 

For traffic with the Indians the traders naturally 
chose points of vantage on the principal trails, and 
this choice frequently prefigured that of the agricul- 
tural settler and the founder of villages. Good ex- 
amples are Shiawassee, Owosso, Flint and Saginaw. 
Not infrequently the traders purchased land at these 
sites and made improvements, sometimes selling out at 
a handsome profit to someone who aspired to found a 
village; in this way began the present city of Flint. A 
post was established there apparently in 1819, by Jacob 
Smith, a trader of German descent, born at Quebec; 
he was the husband of a Chippewa squaw, a marriage 
which sufficiently identified him with the interests 
of the Indians to secure a large reservation in the 

Z?). He founded the post at Grand Rapids in 1826 and became 
a prominent settler of the Grand River Valley. 

34. pp. 158-164. See also History of Genesee County, 14. 

35. History of Genesee County, 13. 



376 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Indian treaty of that year;^*^ the land was to be held 
for his children, and the subsequent litigation of 
titles is said to have much retarded the settlement of 
Flint on the north side of the river as late as 1860.^^ 
The lands are shown on the Risdon map along both 
sides of the Flint River at the crossing of the Saginaw 
Trail. At the ford, known to the French as ''Grand 
Traverse," a ferry and tavern established in 1825 by 
the successor of Smith, marks the transition from the 
trading post to the embryo village. ^^ 

A similar village antecedent was that at the site of 
Shiawassee. The founders of this trading post were 
two brothers who belonged to a family originally from 
Concord, Massachusetts, which came to settle in De- 
troit in 1815.^^ Prior to 1831 the brothers had been 
in Oakland County as agents of the American Fur 
Company, but in that year, cutting their way with 
oxteam across the present township of Grand Blanc 
in Genesee County they located at the future site of 
Shiawassee. Though they continued their trading 
operations they appear to have cultivated the soil at 
that point from the beginning, the post becoming a 
permanent center of information and help to settlers. ^° 
The Dexter colonists on their way to found Ionia in 

36. Ibid., 120. See diagram, Ibid., opposite p. 24, and Bureau 

of American Ethnology, Eighteenth Annual Report, pt. 
2, p. 698. 

37. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 363. 

38. From John Todd and his wife "Aunt Polly," famous among 

early settlers for her cooking and hospitality. The place 
appears in early records as "Todd's Tavern." Todd 
came from Pontiac. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, 365. 

39. J bid., II, 477; Michigan Biographies, 697. 

40. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 120, 281; 

Hubbard, Memorials of a Half Century, 7 1 . 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 377 

1833 passed through this point, and according to a 
daughter of Mr. Dexter were piloted from there to the 
site of Ionia by one of these brothers.^^ A similarly 
weU known post was "Knaggs' Place" on the Indian 
clearing just below at "the great crossing" of the 
Shiawassee. ^'■^ 

On the Saginaw was Louis Campau in the employ 
of the American Fur Company. He is said to have 
platted in 1822 near the miHtary lands reserved in the 
treaty of 1819, the 'Town of Sagana," and appears to 
have built in the same year a large two-story log 
house there."*^ The impulse to this beginning of city 
building was due to the coming of the garrison, but 
growth at first was slow. It appears that of the 
twenty lots of this plat only six were sold, the project 
suffering decline when the troops were removed in 
1824. As agents of the American Fur Company there 
arrived at Saginaw in 1827 Gardner D. Wilhams and 
his brother, both apparently brothers of the traders at 
Shiawassee. Gardner was destined to become the first 
mayor of the future city and the first representative 
of Saginaw County in the State legislature.^-^ 

41. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 146. 

42. Ibid., XXXII, 249, History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 

ties, 25, 120. Whitmore Knaggs was succeeded by 
Richard Godfrey, son-in-law of Gabriel Godfroy who 
founded the post at the site of Ypsilanti. By the Indian 
treaty of 1819 an Indian reservation of about 3,000 
acres had been made at this point. 

43. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 240. Land is said to have been 

entered in 1822 on the site of the present city by Rich- 
ard Godfroy. History of Saginaw County, 598. 

44. Michigan Biographies, 697; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 23; VII, 

239. Other prominent early settlers came at about the 
same time. Ibid., XXII, 448, 451. 



378 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The period of vital beginnings in village founding in 
the Saginaw country began in 1835-36, though some 
life was given to the village project at Saginaw by a 
considerable accession of settlers in 1832"*^ — in that 
year "Saginaw City" was laid out, on the lands of the 
military reservation bought by Samuel Dexter of 
Washtenaw County after the removal of the troops.*^ 
In 1835-36 a strong revival of interest was effected by 
the spirit of speculation. A sale is recorded in the 
Detroit Daily Free Press of May 19, 1836, of twenty 
lots to an eastern merchant for $18,000 — conditioned 
on these lots being built upon at once. In 1837 a new 
plat of the city was made with over four hundred 
blocks, and a map of it is said to have been circulated 
widely throughout the states.'^ ^ Heavy investments 
appear to have been made by Detroit parties organ- 
ized as a stock company; among others a hotel costing 
$35,000, and a large four-story warehouse on the river 
at a cost of $25,000."** The inevitable bank of this 
period was started, and Bela Hubbard records in the 
notes of his visit in 1837 that there were "nearly fifty 
frame houses, four stores — one a handsome dry goods 
and grocery store, on a large scale — two warehouses, 
and another in progress, a small church, two steam 
sawmills, and in progress of erection a large edifice to be 
called the "Webster House;" all were of wood."*^ The 
description corresponds practically with that given by 

45. History of Saginaw Comity, 604. 

46. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 239-240. 

47. History of Saginaw County, 599; Clark's Gazetteer (1863), 463. 

48. History of Saginaw County, 224; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 

494. 

49. Memorials of a Half Century, IS. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 379 

Blois.^° It is estimated that by the close of 1837 some 
nine hundred people had gathered there, ^^ but the 
financial crisis of that year apparently caused many 
to leave. Blois records a population of four hun- 
dred.^'- 

The sources of the first settlers of Saginaw appear to 
have foreshadowed those of later times, excepting the 
Irish and the Germans. According to the president 
of the German pioneer society of Saginaw County 
(1881), the population of the neighborhood was made 
up of "Americans, French-Canadians, a few Irish and 
the Germans. "^'^ Of American settlers mention is made 
in particular of the states of New York, Massachu- 
setts and New Hampshire. 

Outside of Saginaw there appear to have been in 
1837 no settlements on the river, excepting very 
meager beginnings at the site of Bay City — probably 
the village of "Lower Saginaw" mentioned by Blois as 
having been laid out in 1836, which he credits with a 
dozen or fifteen families. ^'^ At the site of East Sagi- 
naw there seems not to have been a permanent settler 

50. Gazetteer of Michigan, 355. 

51. History of Saginaw County, 600. 

52. Progress seems to have been very slow from 1838 to 1845, 

when a general revival of business took place in the val- 
ley. The city was not incorporated until 1857. His- 
tory of Saginaw County, 600. 

53. History of Saginaw County, 221 . For the first settlers in 

and about Saginaw City see Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 233, 
239; XXVIII, 487, 497. Besides those mentioned, the 
most prominent of the early settlers in this period were 
Judge Albert Miller, Daniel Little, Norman Johnson, and 
Harvey Williams. 

54. According to the History of Saginaw County (p. 227), 

"Lower Saginaw" had in 1849 a half dozen frame houses 
and a dozen or more "shanties." 



380 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

until 1849.^^ There were very few settlers during the 
Territorial period on any of the streams tributary to 
the Saginaw within the present limits of Saginaw 
County. A few transient settlers from northwestern 
Ohio appear to have come to the lower Tittabawassee 
in 1832, principally for fishing. ^'^ A few permanent 
settlers seem to have arrived directly frdm Edinburgh, 
Scotland, in the following year.^^ The Tittabawassee 
settlement, it is said, was the first in the county after 
that at Saginaw City, and most of the clearings and 
settlements before 1849 seem to have been along that 
river.^^ At the mouth of Cass River a single settler 
is said to have located in 1833, but the lands of this 
river did not receive their first important accession of 
settlers until the coming of the Germans in 1845.^^ 

Contemporary with the first village beginning on the 
Saginaw River, agricultural settlement was taking root 
on the Saginaw Trail, at points where it crossed the 
Flint and its branches. One of the earliest of these 
settlements was just above the present northern boun- 
dary of Oakland County, which received its first set- 
tlers in less than a half dozen years after the founding 
of Pontiac. Parties from Livingston and Ontario 
counties, New York, bought land there in 1824,*^° and 

55. Charles W. Grant. History of Saginaw County, 476, 492. 

56. These forty or fifty settlers, known as the Olmsteads, are 

said to have moved later to Wisconsin. Mich. Hist. Colls. 
VII, 251. 

57. John and Edward Brown, father and son. Ibid., VII, 245. 

58. History of Saginaw County, 227, 944. 

59. These settlers came directly from Bavaria, settling within 

the present township of Frankenmuth under the direc- 
tion of Pastor Schmidt of Ann Arbor. History of Sag- 
inaw County, 225. 

60. Mick. Hist. Colls., Ill, 431. 




SOITHEASTKHX MICHIGAN IX 1S3(; 

{Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 636) 

This map was drawn by John Farmer of Detroit, who published a map of the Terri- 
tory as early as 1826. An original copy is in the office of the Michigan Historical Com- 
mission. See pp. 9.5-406. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 381 

actual settlers are said to have come two years later 
from the same counties;'''^ before 1830 settlers had ar- 
rived from Vermont and Connecticut.*^- The point was 
early known as the "Thread River settlement," being 
on the Saginaw Trail where it crossed the Thread 
River, a small branch of the Flint. In many early 
records it is referred to as Grand Blanc, a name still 
borne by the township. '^•^ The Northwestern Journal, 
mentioning it by the latter name April 21, 1830, credits 
it with "a hardy industrious and enterprizing popula- 
tion on large well cultivated farms," and Blois de- 
scribes the vicinity as "thickly settled."'''* Another set- 
tlement, apparently on the Thread River, is mentioned 
in the same issue of the Northwestern Journal as Le 
Roy, credited with a store and a tavern. Blois lo- 
cates Le Roy about one and a half miles from Flint, 
and its sawmill and flouring mill seem to have super- 
seded the mill built at the earlier site.'^^ 

The trading operations of Smith, and of his successor 
Todd, of Pontiac, have been noted as the direct antece- 



61. History of Genesee County, 34. The first settlers, Jacob 

Stevens and his two sons, are said to have come in 1822. 
Ibid., 33. 

62. Ibid., 34. 

63. The name is said to have been derived from a large half- 

breed Indian associated with the settlement. 

64. Gazetteer of Michigan, 291. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 

392, for rapid increase of population after 1830. 

65. Ibid., VII, 242. The place had about fifteen families in 

1838, Gazetteer of Michigan, 311. A small settlement is 
said to have been made on the Flint River about 1833, 
derisively called the "Cold Water settlement," because 
its members were opposed to the use of intoxicating 
liquor. Apparently it was independent of Grand Blanc 
and Le Roy. 



382 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

dents of Flint village f'^ yet while both men were some- 
what more than traders, the real beginnings of village 
life at that point came with the same impulse in 1835- 
36 that marked a new era in the settlement of Saginaw. 
In 1835 was recorded the first plat of Flint village," 
and the county seat was secured, located on land said 
to have been recently purchased from John Todd;^^ 
its availability was enhanced by its central position in 
the recently established county of Genesee.®^ In 1836 
a second impulse to the centralization of population 
there was given by the acquisition of the land office 
recently established for the new District of Saginaw. "° 
It was commonly known as the "Genesee Land Office." 
Both its name and that of the county were significant 
of the large early immigration from the "Genesee 
country" in western New York. Much unhealthful 
speculation in town lots ensued. Four additional plats 
are said to have been recorded on lands adjoining the 
original one'^^ before the close of 1837. Owners of real 

66. The name was first given to the river, the "River of the Fire 

Stone," called by the French "Riviere de la Pierre." 
Though the river has a rocky bottom, it is not clear 
what suggested Flint. The site of the Indian village 
appears to have borne an Indian name meaning "open 
plain, burned over," though the site is said to have been 
originally heavily forested. History of Genesee County, 
16, note 119. 

67. History of Genesee County, 124. 

68. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 163. Todd is said to have bought a 

section of land there in 1830 for $800. History of Gene- 
see County, 121. 

69. Territorial Laws, III, 1,416. 

70. It appears to have remained a center of land operations 

until its removal to East Saginaw in 1837. Mich. Hist. 
Colls., XXXV, 370. 

71. History of Genesee County, 124. On one of them was laid 

out the village of "Grand Traverse." 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 383 

estate on the north side of the river apparently held 
prices so high as to drive settlers to the other side of 
the river, and with them went the main part of the 
settlement. ^^ 

The relative importance of the village is indicated 
by its early designation as "the Flint River settle- 
ment;"^"'^ yet up to 1838 there are said to have been 
only four houses in its neighborhood.^^ The first store 
of consequence seems to have been built in that year.^^ 
In the same year an energetic influence came to its 
settlement from Mount Morris, Livingston Coimty, 
New York, in the person of Mr. Todd's successor in 
the village hotel. '^^ In 1838 Flint had "a banking asso- 
ciation, an edge tool manufactory, a sawmill, two dry 
goods stores, two groceries, two physicians, a lawyer 
and the land office for the Saginaw land district." An 
estimated population of three hundred people is re- 
corded, being a hundred less than for Saginaw. '^^ 

72. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 441. 

73. History oj Genesee County, 120. 

74. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 433. 

75. Ibid., Ill, 436. 

76. History of Genesee County, 122. 

77. Gazetteer of Michigan, 287. The vicinity of Flint is favor- 

ably mentioned in 1837 in Michigan House Documents, 
No. 9 (E), 53. In 1845 there appear to have been about 
1 70 resident tax-payers in the villages of Flint and Grand 
Traverse. History of Genesee County, 126-127. In 1855 
these rival settlements were organized together as the 
city of Flint, neither having had village organization 
separate from the government of the township. Mich. 
Hist. Colls., I, 163; III, 438; History of Genesee County, 
128-129. The population at that time is estimated at 
about 2,000. Clark's Gazetteer (1863), p. 309, records 
that the city is to be considered for beauty of location, 
health, substantial wealth, educational facilities and good 
society. 



384 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

On Kearsley Creek, a branch of the FHnt River east 
of the Thread, a settlement worthy of special mention 
was made in 1837 by a colony of nearly thirty families 
from Clarence Township, Erie County, New York, who 
located almost directly east of the Grand Blanc settle- 
ment in what is now the township of Atlas. ^^ This 
was apparently the nucleus of the later village of Good- 
rich. Along the creek there was mmch speculation in 
1835-36. It is said that of 113 land buyers within the 
limits of the present Davidson Township prior to 1837 
only fifteen became actual settlers. ^^ 

On the upper course of the Flint River east of Flint 
village an important settlement was located on the 
excellent power site at Lapeer. A village was platted 
there in 1831.®° The Detroit Free Press, May 31, 
1832, mentions to its credit six families, a good saw 
mill, the possession of the county seat,^^ and the en- 
vironment of an excellent farming country. According 
to Blois the county buildings had not yet been built 
in 1838. He mentions a sawmill and two stores, with 
four more stores in process of construction.®- Appar- 
ently the growth of Lapeer had been very slow from 
1831 to 1837, if it may be measured by the statement 
of Blois that its small group of settlers represented an 
increase of "ten fold the past season,"®^ 

78. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 414. Atlas Township is said to 

have had twenty-two voters in 1836. Ihid., XVII, 414. 

79. Ibid., XXII, 543. 

80. Ibid., I, 219; III, 549; Michigan House Documents (1837), 

No. 9, (E), p. 53. 

81. Territorial Laws, II, 807. 

82. Gazetteer of Michigan, 310. 

83. He mentions also a village of Newbury, containing two 

stores, on the north fork of the Clinton, about twenty 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 385 

The first purchase of land on the Shiawassee River 
was made in the same year as that on the Thread, and 
the settlements at Byron and Grand Blanc on the 
sites of these purchases were the earliest in that re- 
gion. A relation to the older centers of settlement is 
seen in that the date of the purchases, 1824, marked 
also the beginnings at Ann Arbor and Dexter in Wash- 
tenaw, and that the purchase on the Shiawassee was 
made by the founder of Dexter. ^^ His purchase was 
speculative, and like that at Dexter covered a power 
site, at the junction of the east branch of the Shia- 
wassee River with the main stream where it was 
crossed by a fork of the Grand River Trail. While 
there could have been little or no actual settlement 
at Byron, by 1825, yet it appeared on Risdon's map 
of that year as a village, probably because it had been 
fixed upon as the site of the county seat of the recently 
established county of Shiawassee. It was apparently a 
county-seat village speculation. 

The early prominence of Byron on the map, and its 
possession of the county seat, as well as its position 
on the Grand River Trail and its excellent water power, 
made it a well-known point among early settlers; yet 
its settlement seems to have been slow, even after the 
wave of speculation in 1835-36. This was owing partly 
to the rearrangement of the boundaries of the county 
made by carving Genesee from its territory. It was 

83. Con. miles from Flint. Gazetteer of Michigan, 332. This was 

probably a "paper town," though there appear to have 
been settlers in that vicinity early. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
Ill, 549. 

84. Samuel Dexter of Boston. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 475; 

Michigan Biographies, 227. 
49 



386 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

by this means left in the southeastern corner, only a 
mile from the boundary. This unfavorable position 
is the reason assigned by the legislature for removing 
the county seat (1836)^^ to Corunna. A special effort 
was made to promote its prospects in 1836-37 by the 
Byron Company, whose leading men were from Wash- 
tenaw;^^ but they appear to have got little farther than 
recording the village plat. According to Bela Hub- 
bard, who visited the place in the summer of 1837, it 
had only a mill and two houses;" and Blois gives it 
but slight mention, mainly for its water power. ^^ 
What promise it had was overshadowed by settlement 
further down the river at the more central positions 
in the county — at Shiawassee, Corunna and Owosso. 
The failure of its early promoter is typical of many 
similar failures due to miscalculation upon a prospec- 
tive county seat. 

By 1837, according to Bela Hubbard's report of a 
canoe trip made that simimer down the Shiawassee 
River, roads had been opened and settlement had 
made rapid progress along the twenty miles of the 
river's course from Byron to Owosso. ^^ At "Shia- 
wassee town" he found a dozen log cabins and about 
the same number of unfinished frame dwellings, but the 
whole village was under mortgage and advertised to 
be sold at auction. ^° The situation was apparently 

85. Session Laws (1835-36), 82. 

86. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 203-204. 

87. Memorials of a Half Centtiry, 68. 

88. Gazetteer, 260. It is said that the place had but five fami- 

lies in 1840. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 
204. 

89. Memorials of a Half Century, 68. 

90. Ibid., 71. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 387 

connected with the panic of that year and the opera- 
tions of the locaUy famous "Exchange Bank of Shia- 
wassee."^^ The founding of a village there seems to 
have been first seriously undertaken in the preceding 
year by parties from Huron County, Ohio, who 
purchased an entire section of land covering the 
waiter power, ^- With a fiourmill, a sawmill, two stores, 
a physician, a lawyer and some mechanics it seems to 
have been of good promise. ^'^ The "Shiawassee Ex- 
change" is said to have been in the closing years of 
this period a prominent social and business center for 
all of central Michigan. ^^ 

Neither Owosso nor Corunna, as described by Blois, 
compared favorably in extent of settlement with Shia- 
wassee. After the United States survey of the neigh- 
borhood of Owosso in 1823 no further attention seems 
to have been given to the site of the village for a 
decade. In the summer of 1833 it was visited by one 
of the WilHams brothers while on a journey from their 
post at Shiawassee to Saginaw, ^^ who saw the environ- 
ment probably as described in the surveyor's field 
notes: "Plains or Oak-openings. Land first-rate. 
Good soil. No large timber. It was long ago burnt 
off. Undergrowth white and prickly ash, poplar, 
thorns and briars; all in abundance."^'' WilHams is 

91. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Cotmties, 286. 

92. Ibid., 288. See above for the founding of the trading post 

there by the Williams brothers, 1831. 

93. Gazetteer, 361. 

94. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXII, 253. 

95. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 140. It was 

probably seen by the Ionia colonists in the same year, 
being on the Grand River Trail. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
II, 483. 

96. Ibid., 144. 



388 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

said to have been attracted to the place by the 
Indian name for "water power," and to have been ac- 
companied thither by the Indian chief Wasso, or 
Owasso.^^ Apparently he entered about two hundred 
acres at that time, covering the power site; but the 
first improvements were made two or three years later 
by parties from Oakland County and from Rochester, 
New York.^^ The accession of settlers from Rochester 
constituted a considerable colony who came with the 
purpose of founding a city at the Big Rapids, as the 
place early came to be known ;^^ they platted it upon 
land purchased by agents of the company from Wil- 
liams the year before. These colonists meant much 
for the settlement of the land on the Shiawassee, 
comprising men of energy, foresight and ability. A 
former mayor of Rochester was among their number, ^""^ 
and the family of their leader, Daniel Ball, appears 
to have later gained distinction in State affairs. ^°^ 

The settlement of this vicinity would doubtless have 
been much more rapid had it not been for extensive 
speculation. A large proportion of the surrounding 
lands were held at high prices by nonresidents ap- 
parently as late as 1850.^°- The village appears not 

97. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 484. The Indian name is said to have 

meant "Big Rapids." 

98. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 120, 145. 

99. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483. 

100. John Lute. See Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 385, for the names of 

these colonists. 

101. Michigan Biographies, 64, gives the name of David Ball as 

that of the founder of Owosso. 

102. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 263. The vil- 

lage and township are said to have had but seventy-six 
dwelHngs by 1850. The city was not incorporated until 
1859. Ibid., 149. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 389 

to have been platted until 1838, though there seem to 
have been a dozen log houses there in the previous 
year. The sawmill, said to have been among the first 
improvements, is not mentioned by Blois.^°^ Probably 
some impetus was given to the river settlement about 
this time by the project of the "Northern Railroad" 
the course of which was to lie through Owosso and 
Corunna with terminals at Grand Rapids and Port 
Huron. -^^^ 

At Corunna, noth withstanding the county seat was 
located there in 1836, there seems to have been no 
permanent resident until after Michigan became a 
State. Blois speaks of the settlement as "entirely 
new," a sawmill, a fiourmill, a tavern and a store- 
house being mentioned as in process of building. ^°^ 
Bela Hubbard says he saw there in 1837 one log house 
on the bank of the river and a steam mill which was 
partly finished. ^^'^ The village was not platted until 
1837.^0^ 

The founding of Corunna came of an attempt to 
exploit a village by a county-seat company and origi- 
nated with the same wave of speculation that gave 
birth to so many of these enterprizes. It is interest- 
ing that the members of this company were mainly of 
Scotch descent, resident in Detroit. Their leading 
spirit seems to have been Andrew Mack,^°^ who is 
thought by some to have used undue influence 

103. Ibid., 71; Blois, Gazetteer, 336. 

104. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 486. 

105. Blois, Gazetteer, 268. 

106. Memorials oj a Half Century, 1\. 

107. The plat is said not to have been recorded until 1840. His- 

tory of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 166. 

108. McArthur, Frazer, McDonald, Hurlbut and Davids are 

names given in Clark's Gazetteer (1863), p. 233. 



390 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

to get the county seat on his land at the site of Cor- 
unna.^°^ The enterprize had some features in com- 
mon with that at Hastings and Mason, in Barry and 
Ingham counties. ^^° 

Apparently the village of Fentonville, on one of the 
distant ramifications of the Shiawassee south of Grand 
Blanc, could boast of a larger settlement in 1837 than 
could Corunna. Bela Hubbard and Blois agree in 
crediting it with a sawmill, several frame dwelHngs, a 
tavern and a store. ^^^ It gained some distinction from 
its founder, William M. Fenton, a native of Norwich, 
New York, and a graduate of Hamilton College, who 
became lieutenant governor of Michigan from 1848 to 
1852."2 

As above suggested, the position of the early settle- 
ments on the Shiawassee River was influenced by the 
northern branch of the Grand River Trail. The 
southern branch of that trail marked a line of settle- 
ments extending in a northwesterly direction across 
the present county of Livingston. Between 1833 and 
1837 embryo village centers were established at Brigh- 
ton, Howell and Livingston; the original streets of the 
first two commemorate in their names the position of 
the village on this old Indian highway. ^^^ 

109. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483, 485. 

110. Ibid., XII, 386-387 for a description of the original environ- 

ment of Conmna. There appears to have been good 
water power, though Hubbard mentioned a steam mill 
in 1837. Building materials of limestone and sandstone 
were near. See Ibid., 383 and Blois, 269. 

111. Memorials of a Half Century, 68; Gazetteer of Michigan, 285. 

112. Michigan Biographies, 263. 

113. History of Livingston County, 140, 202. See Mich. Hist. 

Colls., II, 483, for the position of the northern branch of 
this trail. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 391 

The first prospecting in this region appears to have 
been due to the estabhshment of the new county of 
Livingston ;^^^ at least in the same year (1833) the first 
prospector came to the site of Howell. He is said to 
have been by trade a butcher, from Hughsonville, New 
York, who had come to Michigan to visit his father 
and brothers in Salem Township, in Washtenaw. Ap- 
parently on advice obtained there he moved north- 
ward by the Indian trail, "^ and was followed soon by 
others, largely from the older neighboring counties, and 
from New York.^^° The first proprietors of the village 
plat of Howell were Detroit parties ;^^^ one of them is 
said to have named the village from a friend of his 
birthplace. Judge Thomas Howell, of Canandaigua, 
New York.118 

The prospecting of 1833-34 was succeeded by rapid 
settlement in 1835-37. At "Livingston Center," as 
Howell was for some time commonly known, the 
prospective county seat was platted in 1835, on 120 
acres of beautiful oak openings. ^^^ In that year there 

114. March 21, 1833. Territorial Laws, III, 993. 

115. Crittenden, History of Howell, 11-12; History of Livingston 

County, 136; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 176. The 
prospector was John D. Pinclcney. 

116. The New York counties most frequently mentioned by 

Crittenden as sources of the first settlers are Ontario, 
Herkimer, Cattaraugus and Livingston. The first tavern 
keeper at Howell was from Geneseo, Livingston County, 
New York. Crittenden, History of Howell, 18. A few 
Scotch settlers are mentioned among the early arrivals 
at Howell. History of Livingston County, 138, 141. 

117. Ibid., 139; Michigan Biographies, 202. These are said to 

have been Flavius Crane and Edward Brooks, the former 
a native of Canandaigua, New York. 

118. Crittenden, History of Howell, 17; History of Livingston 

County, 140; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 177. 

119. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 177. 



392 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

seems to have been but one log house on the site/^° 
but in the fall of the next year the erection of a two- 
story frame hotel indicated expectation of a decided 
increase in settlers and prospectors.^-^ By the close of 
1837 some fifty families and single persons are said to 
have settled there.^^- 

Among the chief retarding influences in the early 
settlement of Howell were the high prices at which 
speculators held village lots, and the county-seat 
contest with the rival village of Brighton. As an 
index to speculation, there were one hundred and 
thirty-seven village lots assessed to nonresidents in 
1837^-''^ at which time there were within the corporate 
limits as they existed in 1880 only fifteen resident tax- 
payers. The struggle over the county seat is said to 
have delayed the erection of suitable county build- 
ings at Howell for a number of years and to have 
decisively dampened the ardor of private enter- 
prize.^-^ 



120. See Alvin L. Crittenden's account of his arrival in that year 

and of the environment of the village site. History of 
Livingston County, 139. There appear to have been 
eighteen settlers in that year in the township. 

121. Crittenden, History of Howell, 32; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXI, 

372; XXXVIII, 177. The postofhce was established 
there in January of that year. Crittenden, Hist, of 
Howell, 21. At the town meeting of that year in April, 
which included voters for many miles around, thirty-six 
votes were cast. Ibid., 25. 

122. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 188-189. 

123. History of Livingston County, 143. Lots were assessed at 

the uniform price of $25 each. 

124. The county buildings were not erected until 1847. Critten- 

den, History of Howell, 56-57; History of Livingston 
County, 30-31; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 180. 
Brighton first assumed the character of a village with 
the opening of a log tavern in 1836, the village being 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 393 

By 1837 Livingston County had developed a fair 
quota of ''mill towns." Brighton and Howell each are 
credited by Blois with a flouring mill, a sawmill and 
a store. ^-^ The village of Livingston about which 
much less is heard in pioneer records, was according 
to his description quite their equal in settlement, be- 
ing five miles nearer to Detroit than either, and on 
what appears to have been an excellent supply of 
water power from a srnall branch of the Huron River 
called Woodruff's Creek. ^^^ In the same vicinity on 
another power site and on the "state road" from Pon- 
tiac to Ann Arbor is mentioned Green Oakville, a set- 
tlement of twelve or fifteen families.^" On Portage 
River, another branch of the Huron, was the village 
of Unadilla, with two sawmills^ -^ — the only village 
center in the southwestern party of the county. The 
power for all of the mills at these vil ages was supplied 
by branches of the Huron at short distances from the 
main stream in Washtenaw County, which gave these 
settlements a natural affiliation with the Washtenaw 
villages of Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Dexter. ^^^ 

The county seat and central position of Howell made 

124. Con. platted in the following year. History of Livingston 

County, 201. Its first settlers were from New York. 

125. Gazetteer, 254, 302. "Benton" is probably Brighton. 

126. Ihid., 313. 

127. Ihid., 297. 

128. Ihid., 375. A settlement appears to have been made there 

as early as 1828. History of Livingston County, 19. 

129. This land was part of Washtenaw County until the estab- 

Hshment of Livingston County in 1833. Territorial 
Laws, I, 334. Many of the first settlers were from Wash- 
tenaw County. The first store at Howell (1837) was 
established from Ann Arbor. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXVIII, 178. 



394 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

it not only the peer of its rivals in trade, but like 
Shiawassee it appears to have early become for a wide 
circle of country a favorite social center. Hon. Jerome 
W. Turner is quoted as once saying, "Men from the 
East who had no design of settling here, staged it out 
from Detroit, or over from Dexter, to spend a few 
days in laughing." He tells of an acquaintance in 
New York who said "he was accustomed to travel 
through almost every town in the United States large 
enough to hold a meeting house without finding one 
that could equal Howell for fun." It was "a town 
from the start with a grin on its countenance which 
never relaxed but continually flowed into guffaws. "^^° 
The practical isolation of a large part of the Saginaw 
country because of the difficulties of communication 
and transportation, was long a serious drawback to 
its settlement In 1822 a party headed by Harvey 
Williams, who is reported to have been a man of much 
determination, is said to have required eight days to 
transport four tons of supplies from Detroit to the 
troops at Saginaw, and though at the time he was 
strongly impressed with the possibilities of the region 
it was twelve years (1834) before he saw enough to 
induce him to live "in a wilderness forty miles from 
civilization. "^^^ In 1834 the national military turn- 
pike over the old Indian trail reached the embryo vil- 
lage of Flint. ^'^^ A decade of work on it had not much 

130. Crittenden, History of Howell, 44-45. 

131. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 25. 

132. This turnpike, later known as the Saginaw Road, was be- 

gun by a detachment of United States troops in the year 
of Williams' trip. Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, 252; History of 
Genesee County, 39. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 395 

improved it, according to the experience of Judge 
Albert Miller, who says that though he was offered 
strong inducements to settle in Flint in the spring of 
1831 he bought a farm, in Grand Blanc rather than 
continue the journey through the woods to that place. ^•''^ 
In the year in which the road reached Flint a bridge 
was built over the river in line with the present Saginaw 
Street, which is said to have been an important cir- 
cumstance in helping to fix the center of the virage''at 
that point. ^^^ The last work done on the road by the 
National Government (1835) extended it five miles 
north of Flint, from which point the State completed 
it to Saginaw in 1841.^^'^ When Michigan became a 
State there appears to have been between Saginaw 
and Detroit a barely passable wagon road. 

The most prominent wagon route west of the Sag- 
inaw Turnpike was one branching off at Pontiac early 
known as the "Pontiac and Grand River Road," 
which led through the northeastern corner of Living- 

133. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 139. In 1830 the journey of a settler 

from Pontiac over the route to Flint is said to have 
taken three days. History of Genesee County, 121. 

134. Ibid., 120. Game and fish had attracted the Indians to 

this ford, called by the French the "Grand Traverse." 
Todd's ferry is mentioned above. See History of Genesee 
County, 119, 122. For the project of the "Northern 
Railroad" see Ihid., 43-44. The first locomotive ap- 
pears not to have reached Flint until 1863. Mich. Hist. 
Colls., Ill, 439. 

135. About 1849-50 a new impulse was given to the improvement 

of this road between Saginaw and Pontiac to make con- 
nections with the railroad then completed from Pontiac 
to Detroit. History of Genesee County, 132, 476. See 
Session Laws (1849), 241 for act authorizing a road be- 
tween the German settlements. This region also felt 
the impulse to plank-road building as early as 1847. 
History of Genesee County, 40-41. 



396 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ston County and near there became one with the 
northern fork of the Grand River Trail. ^^"^ Frequent 
mention is found in pioneer records of a trail leading 
from Owosso to Saginaw, apparently that traversed by 
the trader Williams and Chief Wasso in 1833.^" The 
State projects of the "Northern Railroad" and "North- 
ern Wagon Road" marked the beginnings of an at- 
tempt to secure direct travel between Flint and Cor- 
tmna.-^'^^ 

The main line of the Grand River Trail ran north- 
westward from Detroit almost diagonally through the 
center of Livingston County. ^^^ Its northern fork, 
above mentioned as meeting the trail from Pontiac, 
branched off near Howell, while the main tra,il be- 
came approximately the line of the national turnpike 
known as the "Grand River Road," by which the 
earliest settlers came to Livingston County from De- 
troit. ^'*° The last money appropriated by the National 
Government to improve this line of travel was spent 
just before the admission of the State in clearing its 
course a little west of Howell. ^^^ In 1838 a primitive 

136. Apparently this was the route taken by the founders of 

Ionia in 1833. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coun- 
ties, 25. 

137. Ibid., 25, 140. 

138. Ibid., 32. The State expended some $60,000 on this work, 

which was suspended during the hard times following 
the panic of 1837. 

139. History of Livingston County, 51. 

140. Crittenden, History of Howell, 9; History of Livingston 

County, 19. 

141. Ibid., 51. By 1840 little if any of it was graded west of 

Brighton, but the abandonment of the "Northern Wagon 
Road" about that time turned the aid of the State to- 
wards it. Shortly afterwards a primitive stage line of 
lumber wagons is said to have been started between 
Howell and the vicinity of Lansing. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 397 

stage line began to run between Howell and Detroit, 
the trip one way apparently requiring the better part 
of a week.^'^'' 

The rivers of the Saginaw country furnished an 
abundance of water power, and they aided in the raft- 
ing of logs and lumber ; but excepting the main channel 
of the Saginaw they appear to have been little help 
to the settler in the transportation of goods and sup- 
plies. There are many reports of early attempts to 
use them. Efforts were made by the State and by 
private companies to improve their navigability, but 
without much success. ^"^^ The apparent prospect of 
success undoubtedly helped to secure settlers in many 
localities in days when resources seemed abundant and 
the spirit of enterprize was at high tide, particularly 
as much was hoped from the plan to unite by canal 
the main streams of the Saginaw and the Grand River 

142. Crittenden, History of Howell, 50; History of Livingston 

County, 22; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 179. A 
plank road appears to have been completed between 
Howell and Detroit in 1850. Crittenden, History of How- 
ell, 79. Howell seems to have had eariy connections with 
Kensington in Oakland County by a mail route (1836) 
and by dependence upon the physician there. Later the 
route by way of Lyon or Royal Oak seems to have been 
commonly taken between Howell and Detroit. History 
of Livingston County, 19, 138. 

143. Several thousand dollars spent on the Shiawassee River 

made it sufficiently navigable for a cargo of 200 bbls. of 
flour to be floated at favorable stages of water from 
Owosso to Saginaw about 1837-39. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
II, 486; History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 31; 
Session Laws (1837), 171. Projects for navigating the 
Flint began about 1839. History of Genesee County, 41. 
A note {Ibid., 133) quotes from a Flint paper of March 
27, 1852, "Port of Flint — Arrivals and Departures. — 
Departed, scow, 'Kate Hayes,' Captain Charles Mather." 



398 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

valleys. ^^"* In 1837 shipbmlding appears to have made 
a slight beginning at Saginaw."^ 

The accounts of the early mills of the Saginaw 
country are as numerous as the mills were important 
to the settlers. When transportation was so difficult 
and flour and lumber were products of prime necessity 
it was the desire of settlers to be near a mill, and the 
founders of villages naturally chose mill sites that fur- 
nished the most abundant and cheapest power. Es- 
pecially was this true in a region where it was foreseen 
that lumbering would be a chief future industry. The 
nearest mills for the earliest settlers were in the vicin- 
ity of Pontiac and Ann Arbor, but by 1837 mills had 
been built at all of the chief villages. The first saw 
mills in the region, on the Thread River in the Grand 
Blanc settlement south of Flint, are said to have been 
built as early as 1828 and 1S30}^' In 1832 ten thou- 
sand feet of pine lumber bought at one of these mills 
is said to have been floated down the Flint River to 
the vicinity of Saginaw to build a frame house, ap- 
parently the first in that region. ^^'^ The first gristmill 
of the region, also on the Thread (1834), appears to 
have made that site for several years an objective 
point for a wide circle of country. ^^^ The first mill 
built at Saginaw, about 1835, appears to have been 

144. This project was abandoned in 1839 after an expenditure of 

over $20,000, but its possibilities led a private company 
to contemplate it a decade later. Session Laws (1849), 
196. 

145. History of Saginaw County, 451. 

146. History of Genesee County; 117. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 242. 

147. Ibid., 117, note. Purchased by Eleazer Jewett at Stev- 

ens' mill. 

148. Ibid., 132. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 399 

run by steam. ^^^ But the days of profitable lumber- 
ing were distant; it is said that there were not by 
1850 a half dozen sawmills in Saginaw County ;^^° 
lumbering had perforce to await the era of the railroad 
and an eastern market. 

Besides "going to mill," there were other pioneer 
trade relations between the larger and smaller settle- 
ments. Naturally these relations were determined 
mainly by the easiest routes of travel. Saginaw and 
Flint obtained supplies from Pontiac, though Saginaw 
got them sometimes from Detroit directly by water. ^^^ 
The settlements on the Shiawassee traded first with 
Howell, Ann Arbor and Detroit and later with Pon- 
tiac. ^^^ Considering the difficulties of transportation, 
prices were in general not high before the panic ;^^^ 
stock had to be driven in from Ohio;^^'^ wheat sold in 
Livingston County before 1838 at $2 per bushel. ^^^ 
But actual suffering existed in 1837 in that coimty, and 
panic prices prevailed; according to the reminiscences 

149. The "Emerson Mill," built by the Williams brothers. 

Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 25; VII, 243; see History of Saginaw 
County, 383-85 for an accoimt of the early mills and 
lumbering of that comity. See also History of Genesee 
Cotmty, 132-133; History of Shiawassee and Clinton Coim- 
ties, 151; History of Livingston County, 21, 141; Critten- 
den, History of Howell, 28, 61. 

150. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 498. 

151. Ibid., II, 485; VII, 388, 393. 

152. Ibid., II, 486. The supplies of the Rochester company at 

Owosso (1837) were sent by the water route to Saginaw. 
Ibid., II, 485. 

153. A long Hst of store prices for 1831-32 at Saginaw is given 

in the History of Saginaw County (p. 236). Flour was 
$7.31 per bbl. 

154. Mich. Hist. Colls., VII, 393. 

155. History of Livingston County, 23. Conditions were changed 

by the abundant harvest of 1838. 



400 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of a contemporary there were families that Hved for 
days on boiled acorns and fish cooked and eaten with- 
out salt or fat.^^^ 

The extravagant speculation and "frenzied finance" 
which heralded the panic of 1837 made almost all 
conditions of life in the Saginaw country as elsewhere 
in the Territory abnormal. Much of the most desirable 
land was taken up by speculators without any inten- 
tion to settle upon it. In the History of Shiawassee 
and Cli7iton Counties examples are given of properties 
which these "land sharks" would buy one day at the 
Government price of $1.25 per acre and hold the next 
day at $5.^" It is said that at Howell in Livingston 
County the high-priced holdings of nonresident specu- 
lators in 1847 were so extensive as to cause the new 
courthouse to be built on an addition. ^^^ A counter- 
part of the land speculations was the so called "wild- 
cat" banking, of which a typical description is given 
in the History of Genesee Coiinty}^^ The panic is said 
to have reduced the population of Saginaw from nine 
hundred to about four hrmdred and fifty, and it was 
1841 before a favorable reaction began to be felt in 
that coimty.^*^" 

The distribution of population in the Saginaw coun- 
try bore undoubtedly some relation to the organiza- 

156. Ibid., 22. 

157. Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483; History of Shiawassee and Clinton 

Counties, 121. 

158. Crittenden, History oj Howell, 58. It became the village 

center and shifted the principal part of the village away 
from the original site. 

159. p. 137. ^ee Sil^o Mich. Hist. Colls., Yll,3>96-Z9?>. 

160. History of Saginaw County, 605, 607. See also Mich. Hist. 

Colls., VII, 240. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 401 

tion of counties and townships there. In 1822 when 
the garrison was established at Saginaw in consequence 
of the Indian treaty of 1819, the whole of the Saginaw 
region was divided into the counties of Lapeer, Shia- 
wassee and Saginaw, all with extensive boundaries. ^"^^ 
It has been estimated that in 1830 there were not more 
than a hundred people in the three counties,^*^^ none 
of which had sufficient population to call for separate 
county government until 1835^*^^ — Shiawassee not until 
1837. ^'^■^ The increase of population in the vicinity of 
Flint and Grand Blanc is indicated by the establish- 
ment and organization of Genesee County in 1835-36, 
out of territory originally in the older counties. ^°^ 
Livingston County, established in 1833, was organized 
but a few days later than Genesee."'^ 

The first township government organized in the 
Saginaw country was significant of the beginning of 
settlement at the future site of Saginaw City. This 
was the township of Saginaw, coextensive with the 
county as laid out in 1822.^" At the first township 

161. By proclamation of Governor Cass, September 10, 1822. 

Territorial Laws, I, 333-3S4:. The boundaries of Saginaw 
County were readjusted March 2, 1831. Territorial 
Laws, III, 872. 

162. Mainly in the neighborhood of FHnt, and most of these were 

probably French-Canadian trappers and traders. Mich. 
Hist. Colls., I, 359; VII, 232, for the settlers along the 
Saginaw trail north of Pontiac. The barest beginnings 
had been made in the southern part of Livingston 
County. History of Livingston County, 19-20. 

163. Territorial Laws, III, 1348, 1349. 

164. Session Laivs (1837), 106. 

165. Territorial Laws, III, 1416. Session Laws (1835-36), 66. 

166. Territorial Laws, III, 993; Session Laws (1835-36), 65. 

167. July 12, 1830. Territorial Laws, III, 818. 

51 



402 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

meeting in the spring of 1831 there are said to have 
been cast only a few over a dozen votes i^*^^ two years 
later, the vicinity of Flint and Grand Blanc was recog- 
nized as a growing center of settlement by the organiza- 
tion of the first township south of Saginaw^^^ — the 
name of Grand Blanc for the township points probably 
to the settlement on Thread River as being in contem- 
porary opinion more important than -the one at Flint. 
In the following year (1834) the settlement in the 
southeastern corner of Lapeer County secured organ- 
ized government as Mia (Bristol) Township ;^^° and 
there was apparently scattered settlement elsewhere 
in Lapeer County, as in the same year the remainder 
was organized in the large township of Lapeer. ^'^^ In 
the meantime the population of Saginaw Township, as 
recorded in the History of Saginaw County purporting 
to give the census of 1834, had increased to 303.^^^ 

The year of the cholera epidemic (1834) was not 
auspicious for the beginning of the new settlements in 
Livingston County, but in the spring of 1835 three 
townships were organized in the county, which indicates 
apparently that settlers had come in rapidly. ^^^ The 

168. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXII, 451, 453. The meeting took place 

after the readjustment of the boundaries in March, 1831. 
See Territorial Laws, III, 872. 

169. March 9, 1833. Territorial Laws, III, 985. 

170. March 7, 1834. Ibid., Ill, 1277. The name was changed 

to Bristol in December of that year, after its most promi- 
nent settler. Ibid., Ill, 1333. 

171. December 30, 1834. Territorial Laws, III, 1339. The 

southeastern comer was included in Grand Blanc Town- 
ship the preceding year. 

172. p. 457. 

173. March 17 and 26. Territorial Laws, III, 1368, 1404. The 

southwestern township of Unadilla included the present 
northwestern township of Washtenaw County (Lyndon, 
organized March 23, 1836). 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 403 

position of these townships shows that the settlements 
were mainly in the southern part of the county, though 
settlers are said to have entered the northern part in 
1834."^ In the following year (1836) along with ex- 
tensive speculations, the population is said to have 
increased more than five-fold ;^^^ and the spring of that 
year, before the opening of active immigration, saw 
three new townships organized — two of them in the 
south and east.^'^'^ 

The organization of other townships in 1836 shows 
an increase of settlement on the Flint and Shiawassee 
rivers. In that spring was organized Shiawassee Town- 
ship, coterminous with the county. ^^^ The settlement 
at Flint became the center of a new township north of 
.Grand Blanc, ^^^ while south of the latter the settle- 
ment at Fenton was recognized in the township of 
Argentine. ^'^^ The formation of Atlas and Hadley 
townships shows increasing settlement in the south and 
southwest of Lapeer County, which had apparently 
spread eastward from Grand Blanc and northward 
from Oakland. ^^'^ 

By the spring of 1837 the growth of settlement called 
for separate township government in several parts of 
all of these counties, excepting Saginaw. In Lapeer 

174. History of Livingston County, 20. 

175. Ihid., 21. 

176. Session Laws (1835-36), 77. 

177. March 23, 1836. Ibid., 78. A year before, the settle- 

ments there had been attached for township purposes 
to Grand Blanc (March 26, 1835). Territorial Laws, 
III, 1404. 

178. March 2, 1836. Session Laws (1835-36), 67. 

179. July 26, 1836. Ibid., 80. 

180. March 23, 1836, Ibid., 77. 



404 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

County the township of Lomond completed the row 
of townships along the south bordering upon the north- 
ern townships of Oakland County. ^^^ Another town- 
ship, Richfield, was added next to the older settle- 
ments of Genesee County. ^^^ The central and north- 
ern parts of Lapeer County seem still to have been 
comparatively unsettled. According to the State cen- 
sus of 1837 the coimty contained 2,602 people. ^^'^ 

On the Saginaw Road in Genesee County the large 
townships of Flint and Grand Blanc were in 1837 sub- 
divided, the latter taking the area of a surveyed town- 
ship and containing by the census more than a fourth 
of the population of the county, about half as many 
people as the total of Shiawassee j^^'^ but a comparison 
with the population of the Flint settlement is only, 
roughly possible on the basis of the census, since that 
township had exactly six times the area of Grand 
Blanc. ^^^ The third important center of settlement in 
Genesee County, with double the area of Grand Blanc, 

181. March 11, 1837, Session Laws (1837), 39. 

182. Ibid., 35. 

183. Exclusive of the township of Richfield. The population is 

not given by townships. Michigan Legislative Manual 
(1838), 71. According to Michigan House Documents, 
No. 9, (E), 52, the tract of country between Lapeer and 
the St. Clair River was entirely unsettled. 

184. Grand Blanc, poptdation 691. Its area was reduced by the 

formation of Mundy Township, March 11, 1837. Session 
Laws (1837), 36. The population of the latter, con- 
taining double the area of Grand Blanc, was 234. Mich- 
igan Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 

185. The large township of Flint occupied the center of the 

county, having been reduced by the fonnation of Vienna 
Township at the north. Session Laws (1837), 42. Their 
populations were respectively 1,288 and 107. Michigan 
Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 



THE SAGINAW COUNTRY 405 

contained about two-thirds as many people. ^^^ The 
total population of the county was somewhat larger 
than that of Lapeer on the east, which had double the 
area ; and it was about twice that of Shiawassee on the 
west, whose area was about its equal. 

If the creation of townships may be taken as an 
indication, the population of Shiawassee County had 
increased rapidly within a year, and the relative size 
of the township suggests that the greater number of 
people were in the southeast along the river. Two 
settlements there were of the area of surveyed town- 
ships.^" The township of Burns in the southeastern 
corner included the oldest settled lands in the county, 
and the township of Vernon^ ^^ immediately above it 
included the settlement about "Shiawassee town." 
The remainder of the southern half of the county re- 
tained the name of the original township, while the 
northern half was organized as the new township of 
Owosso.^^^ The population of Shiawassee County was 
a little more than that of Saginaw, which still had but 
one township for the whole county, with less than a 
thousand people. ^^° 

The population of Livingston County by the same 
census was 5,029,^^^ more than one-half of which was 
in the southeastern quarter. Settlement was sparsest 
in the northwest, about equal in the northeast and 

186. Argentine, population 434. Population of the county 2,754. 

Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 

187. Session Laws (1837), 38. 

188. Ibid., 40. 

189. Ibid., 36. 

190. Shiawassee, population 1,184; Saginaw, population 920. 

Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75. 

191. Ibid., 72. 



406 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

southwest; nearness to the older settlements in Oak- 
land and Washtenaw apparently were the chief in- 
fluences determining this distribution. Before the cen- 
vSus was taken there were formed four new townships ;^^- 
but the entire northwestern quarter of the county was 
left as the township of Howell, which contained the 
county seat; its population, 442, was probably mainly 
gathered in its southeastern corner, about- the county 
seat village of Howell. 

192. March 11, 18, 20. Session Laws (1837), 39, 42, 43, 141. 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Grand River Region 

T^HE first attention given to the Grand River re- 
gion after the Indian treaty of 1821 looking to- 
ward agricultural settlement, was in 1829, when Eaton, 
Barry and Ingham counties were established by the 
same act of the Territorial legislature as the south- 
western counties along the Chicago and Territorial 
roads. ^ Three years later the counties of Ottawa, Kent, 
Ionia, CHnton, Montcalm and Gratiot received similar 
attention,^ but none of these counties had township 
organization before 1835 except Kent, of which the 
part south of the Grand River was organized as Kent 
Township in 1834.^ The first counties of this section 
were not organized until 1836-37.'* 

The original physical conditions of the section were 
on the whole the same as now with a few changes of 
consequence in the timbered lands and in the immedi- 
ate vicinity of important centers of population. The 
larger part of the soil of Kent County was of the class 
found in the oak openings.^ About one -third of the 

1. Territorial Laws II, 735. 

2. Ibid., Ill, 871. 

3. Ibid., Ill, 1275. 

4. Kent, March 24, 1836, Session Laivs, 65. The two present 

northern tiers of townships were not a part of the county 
until 1840, Session Laius, 196; Ionia, March 18, 1837, 
Session Laws, 97; Eaton and Ottawa, December 29, 1837, 
Session Laws, 9. 

5. Blois, Gazetteer, 226. 



408 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

county, mainly the western part, appears to have 
been heavily forested with black walnut, beech, sugar- 
maple and white-wood.*^ North of Grand River there 
was heavy pine which furnished the early supply of 
tractable wood for the furniture industry at Grand 
Rapids.'^ The early lumbering industry and the slow- 
ness of agricultural settlement there is seen in the 
growth of the township of Nelson.^ There appear to 
have been at least four large Indian clearings in this 
county, all of them on the Grand River; one at the 
mouth of the Flat River (Lowell), another at the 
mouth of the Thornapple (Ada), a third at the rapids 
of the Grand (Grand Rapids), and a fourth at "Little 
Prairie" ( Grand ville).^ At these points there was early 
to be found along with the Indian village the trading 
post of the American Fur Company. 

The primitive environment of Grand Rapids is quite 
fully given in a well-known recent account. ■^'^ The 
place presented originally a view that must have been 
very attractive to settlers; a valley about a mile and a 
half in width threaded by the waters of the Grand 
River was surrounded by forest-clad hills ; the h^avie^ 
timber was on the bottom lands; on the higher lands 
lay the oak openings; pine was interspersed among 
these timbers at intervals, and among bearers of wild 
fruit flourished the wild plum tree and the grape 
vine. 

6. Ibid., 226. Cf. Everett, Memorials of the Grand River Val- 

ley, (1878), 41. 

7. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 1036. 

8. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 111 . 

9. Ibid., 40; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 215, 216. 
10. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 18-24. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 409 

Productive gardens have now been made of the 
neighboring swamps. It is a striking illustration of 
the marked changes often made in the local environ- 
ment of large population centers that where the post 
office now is in Grand Rapids, it is said originally 
there was a swamp covering about an acre.^^ 

The chief geological feature of the valley at the site 
of Grand Rapids was the exposure of a large area of 
subcarboniferous limestone, a ledge of which formed 
the rapids in the river and created an immense water 
power. ^- There is said to have been originally between 
Pearl and Leonard streets about eighteen feet of de- 
scent in these rapids. ^•'^ Besides the soil, this water 
power and the neighboring forests appear to be the 
strongest factors in the early rapid settlement of 
Grand Rapids. 

The topography and soil of Ottawa County was 
formed by sand drifted in from Lake Michigan and by 
deposits from the Grand River, ^'^ and this general char- 
acter of the county seems to have been early known 
in the East. "The country along the eastern branch 
of Lake Michigan," says the geographer MeHsh, writ- 
ing in 1822, "is ge-nerally sandy and barren. On the 
bank of the Grand River, however, there are some of 

11. Ihid., 23. One of the small lakes (Reed's Lake, named for 

Ezra Reed, a settler of about 1834) is now a well-known 
pleasure resort for the city. Ibid., 166. 

12. Charles A. Whittemore, in Michigan Academy of Science, 

First Report (1894-1899), 62-65. 

13. Goss, History oj Grand Rapids, I, 21. 

14. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 21; there is a fairly ac- 

curate popular account of the geology, surface and soil 
of Ottawa County in the History of Ottawa County, 16-17, 
26. For a description of the sand dunes of this shore 
see above, Chapter I. 



410 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the finest tracts of farming land in the Territory. "^^ 
In another report it is observed that the high banks 
of Grand River disappear a short distance below 
Grand Rapids, where the country assumes a level sandy 
surface of from twenty to fifty feet above the lake.^*^ 
The same report notes also a rich growth of pine and 
hemlock; extensive oak openings reached several miles 
back from the river, favoring land transportation — 
the trees were far enough apart for wagons or loads of 
hay to pass among them easily. ^^ These descriptions 
correspond to those given by Blois.^^ The site of the 
first important settlement in the county would be ex- 
pected near the harbor at the mouth of the Grand 
River. 

The soil of Ionia County is described as a black 
rich sandy loam, free from stones, naturally arable and 
fitted for grazing. ^^ The points earliest to attract set- 
tlers were naturally the Indian clearings at the junc- 
tions of tributary streams with the Grand River. A 
clearing near the mouth of Prairie Creek was destined 
to be the site of the city of Ionia^° about two miles 
from the center of the county. ^^ Its selection seems to 
have been partially determined by desire to secure the 
county seat, for there was comparatively little water 
power at that point; the first mill was built on Prairiei 

15. Melish, Geographical Description of the United States, (ed. 

1822), p. 389. 

16. Michigan House Documents (1837), No. 9 (E), p. 55. 

17. History oj Ottawa County, 20. 

18. Blois, Gazetteer, 235. 

19. Ibid., 111. 

20. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 35, 40. 

21. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 137. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 411 

Creek." Descriptions of the site of Lyons at the 
mouth of the Maple River suggest that of Grand 
Rapids, a fertile picturesque valley surrounded by 
hills overlooking the river, which afforded a fine water 
power. ^^ As at Grand Rapids, there appears to have 
been an early trading post at this point. The lands 
at the mouth of the Lookingglass River also seem to 
have early attracted traders and settlers. ^^ 

The impression which prospective agricultural set- 
tlers could have derived from Blois' description of 
Eaton County was not wholly favorable. As to the 
soil, it is described favorably as in the main a calcare- 
ous sandy loam with a thick covering of vegetable 
mould ;-^ but for the timber, he agrees with all early 
reports of the prospective difficulties for the farmer, 
that the land was heavily forested excepting a narrow 
strip at the south. The county lay in a belt of heavy 
forest which extended through Barry County on the 
west and Ingham County on the east, and which ma- 
terially retarded the settlement of those counties as 
well. A pioneer writer who has told much about early 
conditions in Eaton County quotes the report of the 
commissioners who located the county seat in 1833 as 
saying, that "the major part of this county is of the 
best quality of timbered land, possessing a great variety 
of soil and timber, generally well watered, and invit- 
ing to the emigrant who prefers a timbered farm.""*"' 

22. Ibid., 147. The later manufacturing there seems to have 

received its first impulse with the introduction of steam 
power about 1850. 

23. Ibid., 237. 

24. The site of the present village of Portland. 

25. Blois, Gazetteer, 219. 

26. Edward W. Barber, in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 344. 



412 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

A narrow strip of oak openings extended across the 
southern end of the county below the heavily tim- 
bered area. The site of Belle vue lay at its northern 
edge on Battle Creek at a point favored with a degree 
of water power." A second opening into the timber 
was in the southeast near the site of Eaton Rapids. ^^ 
The few openings in the forest were among the first 
spots to attract settlers. The site of Charlotte near 
the center of the county was on a beautiful prairie of 
nearly a section of land, a favorite planting ground of 
the Indians where many trails crossed. ^^ Vermontville 
Township, where was founded an important New Eng- 
land colony, is said to have resembled parts of the 
Champlain Valley of Vermont, and its selection for a 
Vermont settlement appears to have been influenced 
by this circumstance. "° Building material besides tim- 
ber was furnished by a quarry of sandstone in the 
northeastern part of the county and by an abundant 
deposit of limestone in the vicinity of Bellevue.^^ 

Among the instructions to the agents of a colony 
from Rochester, New York, which settled in Clinton 
County in 1836 it is suggested, "You may be suited on 
the Thorn Apple River. We learn that there is a 
valuable tract of land near the center of Barry County ;" 
the agents later reported, "Went to Barry County. 
We went but soon returned. Got satisfied that it was 



27. Ibid., Ill, 385; XXIX, 345. 

28. Ibid., XXIX, 385. 

29. Ibid., XXIX, 365. 

30. Ibid., XXIX, 382. 

31. In later days the mineral springs at Eaton Rapids gained 

for that place a considerable reputation. Mich. Hist. 
Colls., Ill, 427. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 413 

too heavily timbered, and rough, broken land, for us. "^^ 
The heavy timber appears to have been as in Eaton 
County mainly in the northern and eastern parts, the 
west being quite open. The sites of Yankee Springs 
and Middleville were in the oak openings^^ and the 
name of the present southwestern township of Prairie- 
ville bears witness to the original open character of 
that neighborhood. Its openness is further shown by 
the numerous lakelets of that region characteristic of 
extensive oak openings. The principal source of water 
power in Barry County was the Thornapple and its 
branches, to which was due largely the comparatively 
early dates of settlement at Middleville and Hastings. 

The early physical environment of Clinton County 
was characterized by a comparatively level surface, 
good soil, extensive forests, and excellent water power 
on the Grand, the Maple and the Lookingglass.^'' In 
the water power is found the main explanation of the 
first settlements made in the county. The landscape 
at the junction of the Grand and the Prairie rivers, a 
site of one of the earliest settlements, is said to have 
been impressive in its beauty. Portions of the county, 
especially the southeast, appear to have had originally 
much swamp land. 

Another heavily timbered area of this section was 
Ingham County, which however had many plains and 
openings. The water power was good, especially at 

32. Ibid., V, 330; History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 

424. 

33. History of Allegan and Barry Counties (1880), 486, 514- 

Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 303. 

34. Blois, Gazetteer, 218; History of Shiawassee and Clinton 

Counties, 331, 403, 405. 



414 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the site of Lansing. Its soil was miich like that of 
the adjacent counties. Near Lansing the land was 
comparatively level and the soil was a sandy and 
clayey loam. In places there was clay enough for 
making bricks; quantities of marl could be found in 
the lowlands; sand and gravel were plentiful; the 
boulder drift furnished building stone and the soil was 
excellent for cereals and fruits. But the heavy timber 
caused the coimtry to be long without actual settlers. 
Probably the earliest accounts of the Grand River 
region that gained the attention of intending agricul- 
tural settlers in the East were those emanating from 
the United States survey ors.^^ A Detroit paper of 
1826 mentions the return of Lucius Lyon from a four 
months' surveying expedition through that region and 
gives a brief description of the lands about the rapids 
of the Grand River. Doubtless some vague reports 
may have emanated from the Indian mission which 
was located at these rapids, or from the furtraders. 
The early gazeteers consulted in the East, especially 
those of Melish, showed a general knowledge of the 
region that was fairly accurate. Some accounts were 
detrimentally misrepresentative of the whole of the in- 
terior of Michigan. But the Grand River region seems 
to have been thought distant and unpromising as com- 
pared with lands on the south and east, which were 
not only easier to reach but nearer to growing markets 
and developing lines of transportation. 

35. Michigan Herald, April 26, 1826. Antedating these reports 
by some years the "Sciawassa Exploring Party" seems 
to have visited the Grand River country. See their 
proposed itinerary in the Detroit Gazette for October 5, 
1821, and their Journal in the same paper for November 9, 
1821, and subsequent issues. 



Ijjirr 




""T;:ij:^^?sr" 


--r-m 


mT-m--\ 


lllil-f 










1 














3 r 

9 < 

2 s 







THE GRAND RIVER REGION 415 

The earliest actual investigation made by a pros- 
pector who contemplated settlement in the Grand 
River region appears to be that reported in the De- 
troit Journal and Micliigan Advertiser for November 9, 
1831. This practical farmer, purporting to have been 
a resident some ten years in the Territory and well 
acquainted with it, is quoted as follows: "The land 
adjoining it [the Grand River] is exceedingly fertile, 
abounding with prairies of the richest alluvial soil. 
The largest corn I ever saw was that raised by the 
Indians on these prairies. Many hundred farms might 
be conducted here, all of the best kind, and there 
would be but little choice. A gentleman who is now 
surveying the country and who is extensively ac- 
quainted in almost every part of the Territory accords 
with me in the opinion that the Grand River country, 
taking all its advantages into consideration, is the 
finest portion of our new Territory." 

The routes taken by pioneers to the Grand River 
region were principally four; the so-called "Northern 
Route," the Grand River Road, the Territorial Road 
and the Great Lakes. The "Northern Route," ex- 
tended from Pontiac westward across Shiawassee, Clin- 
ton and Ionia counties. ^"^ Though its difficulties pre- 
vented it from being the usual line of travel to and from 
the Grand River region, it appears to have been the 
earliest taken, a choice showing the closeness of rela- 
tion between the Grand and the Saginaw valleys in the 
minds of pioneers. The short portage between the trib- 
utaries of the two river systems seems to have been 
early known, as appears for example in the projected 

36. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34. 



416 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

itinerary of the "Sciawassa Exploring Company" in 
1821." The exploration of 1831 reached the Grand 
by way of the Lookingglass.^^ The founder of the 
Ionia colony probably took a route near to this in 
1832. According to an account left by his daughter,^^ 
he led his colonists from Detroit northward over the 
Saginaw Road to Pontiac, thence to the present village 
of Corunna; from which place, says another account, 
they hewed the way for their oxteams through the 
forest to the Grand.'*" John Ball, a prominent early 
settler of Grand Rapids, is said to have passed over 
this route in 1836, finding it a day's journey from 
house to house between Ionia and PontiaC*^ The 
eastern part of this route was the natural one for the 
early settlers of Clinton County,^- though its first set- 
tlers, who are said to have come from Ann Arbor, ap- 
parently moved northward directly across the inter- 
vening country.'*^ 

The middle route, along the Indian trail through 
Ingham and Livingston counties, appears to have been 
used little by settlers in reaching the Grand River 

37. Detroit Gazette, October 5, 1821. 

38. Detroit Journal and Michigan Advertiser, November 9, 1831. 

39. Mrs. Prudence Tower, in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 146. 

40. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 470, following the Detroit Post and 

Tribune of June 1, 1878. An Indian trail passed through 
the site of Lyons and the company was piloted by a 
French trader, who, it might be supposed, would fol- 
low it. 

41. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 1, 117. The line traveled by 

these pioneers seems to have been approximately that 
surveyed in 1837 for the Northern Railroad (Michigan 
House Documents (1837), No. 9 (E), 50-54), and now 
traversed by the Grand Trunk Railroad. 

42. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 394, 424. 

43. Mich. 'Hist. Colls., XVll,ilO. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 417 

region before 1837. It was the shortest route, but it 
appears to have passed for much of its distance through 
heavy forests. It is said that the first wagon to pass 
through the region west of Howell was that of an 
Eaton County settler of 1836 who apparently took the 
line of this trail. ^^ A pioneer gives a reminiscence of a 
trip from Detroit to White Oak, Ingham County, in 
1836 that is not flattering to the conditions of travel at 
that time in the vicinity of this road.^^ 

The route which was by far the most commonly used 
to reach the region of the Grand River was the Terri- 
torial Road, extending westward from Ann Arbor 
through the counties of Jackson, Calhoun and Kala- 
mazoo. Settlers branched off at the principal settle- 
ments on this road at Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek 
and Kalamazoo, and followed the Indian trails or 
threaded the openings. The earliest settlers went west 
as far as Gull and Goguac prairies before turning north- 
ward. The men who came to work on the canal at 
Grand Rapids in 1835 floated their famiHes and sup- 
plies thither from Jackson down the Grand River in 
flat bottomed scows; many settlers are said to have 
come later that way."**^ The first entrance into Eaton 
County was apparently made through the openings 
about the site of Bellevue.^^ Later, settlers left the 

44. Michigan Biographies, 58. 

45. Past and Present of Lansing and Ingham Cotmty, 9-20; 

from an article in the Ingham County News, April 5 and 
12, 1872. The Territorial Road was followed as far as 
Ann Arbor. For a similar trip in 1838, see Mich. Hist. 
Colls., I, 189-190. 

46. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 886. 

47. History of Ingliam and Eaton Counties, 351; Mich, Hist. 

Colls,, III, 385; XXXI, 187. 
53 



418 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

road at Jackson and entered at the southeastern cor- 
ner of the county through the more heavily wooded 
lands near the site of Eaton Rapids. An Indian trail 
led from Marshall through Bellevue and Vermont ville 
to lonia.^^ For teams, the forest north of Bellevue was 
almost impenetrable; in 1835 some forty settlers at 
Bellevue and Marshall subscribed $150 to cut a road 
over this trail; the work appears not to have gotten 
at that time beyond the site of Vermontville. The set- 
tlement of Vermontville in 1836 again emphasized the 
need of this road and by combined efforts it was con- 
tinued to lonia.^^ It was over the southern part of 
this road that the first post route in Eaton County 
was estabHshed betv/een Bellevue and Marshall.^ ° The 
earliest relations of Eaton Rapids and Charlotte with 
the settlements southward seem to have been through 
Jackson; those of Ionia, Vermontville and Bellevue 
were apparently made through Marshall. ^^ 

The site of Grand Rapids was reached first from the 
south through the western part of Barry County. An 
Indian trail from the Potawatomi village at Kalama- 
zoo led through Gull Prairie to the site of Yankee 
Springs, thence to Indian Middle Village and down the 
Thornapple River to its mouth at the site of Ada, where 
it connected with the trail along the Grand River 
through the sites of Ionia, Grand Rapids and Grand 

48. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 20. 

49. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385. 

50. Ibid., Ill, 384. John Ball, who returned from Detroit to 

Ionia in 1836 by the northern route as stated above 
made the going part of his journey over the southern 
route. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 117. 

51. Bellevue was first settled through the activities of Marshall 

men. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 419 

Haven. ^- This route through the open country ap- 
pears to have been the one that was usually taken by 
settlers on leaving the Territorial Road at Battle 
Creek or Kalamazoo for Grand Rapids. ^^ The first 
team to arrive at Grand Rapids with immigrants seems 
to have come over this route from Gull Prairie, ^^ and 
the first stage line from Grand Rapids to the Terri- 
torial Road appears to have followed the same to 
Battle Creek. ^^ From Yankee Springs, lines of travel 
branched off eastward to Hastings and westward to 
Otsego and Allegan; the Indian trail to Grand Rapids 
by way of Green Lake and Gaines was sometimes 
followed. ^^ 

The time consumed in traversing these several land 
rotites necessarily varied, depending on the season, the 
condition of the roads, the means of conveyance and 

52. History of Barry County, 33. 

53. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34, 37. 

54. History of Kent County, 218. According to Goss, the first 

teams to enter the Grand River Valley by way of Middle- 
ville came in 1832 to GrandA^Ue. History of Grand 
Rapids, I, 611. It is not stated whether these settlers 
came through Ada and Grand Rapids. In 1833 wagons 
loaded with provisions were driven to Grand Rapids 
across Gull Prairie by settlers of Sturgis in St. Joseph 
County. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 520. The builder 
of the first mill at Grand Rapids came in the same year 
by that route. Mich. Hist. Colls., IV, 289. The Ionia 
colony secured supplies from Gull Prairie, bringing them 
JDy wagon to the site of Middleville and from there in 
boats down the Thomapple and up the Grand River. 
Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 562. 

55. History of Barry County, 514; Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 

I, 615. 

56. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XXVI, 303. A trail led to Grand Rapids from Allegan 
by way of Byron. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 
34, 37. 



420 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

many individual circumstances. The colonists led by 
Dexter over the northern route in 1833 are said to 
have been sixteen days in going with oxteams from 
Detroit to Ionia, but part of their time was consumed 
in cutting a way through heavy timber." To take 
thirty days to go to Detroit and return seems not to 
have been thought extraordinary in the winter of 
1836,^^ though under favorable conditions the round 
trip seems to have been possible in less than one-half 
of that time.^^ 

The water route around by the Great Lakes and the 
Grand River was longer than any of the land routes 
and seems to have been favored mainly for the trans- 
portation of supplies. Yet settlers are said to have 
come to the Grand River region by that way as late 
as 1837.''° In 1833 the goods of the first settlers at 
Ionia were sent around by the Lakes ;^^ the first print- 
ing press reached Grand Rapids by that route, being 
brought up from Grand Haven on the ice by dog 
sleds. ^'- It is said that the early merchants of Ionia 
used to figure that it cost less to get their goods over 
the whole distance of the Lakes from New York to 
the mouth of the Grand River than it did to bring 
them from that point to Ionia. "^^ As settlement in- 

57. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 370. 

58. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 141. 

59. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 102; Memorials of the Grand 

River Valley, 37. These accounts appear to refer to the 
Territorial Road. 

60. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 438; IX, 282. 

61. Ibid., XIV, 560; XXVIII, 147. 

62. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 900. The load broke 

through into the river but the press was later recovered. 

63. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 145. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 421 

creased, the primitive means of transportation on the 
river were succeeded by steamboats; in 1837, and for 
several years afterwards, a single steamboat running 
triweekly between Grand Rapids and Grand Haven 
appears to have sufficed for the needs of trade and 
passenger traffic.''^ 

The beginning of settlement in the lower Grand 
River Valley was in one respect like that in south- 
western Michigan in that the first nucleus of civiliza- 
tion there was a Baptist mission and a trading post; 
these were located near the two Indian villages at the 
rapids of the Grand River. ""'^ The Carey Mission in 
Berrien County and that on the Grand River were 
both the direct results of the Chicago Indian treaty 
of 1821/'*^ Their purpose in so far as it affected settle- 
ment is expressed in the instructions given by Lewis 
Cass to the missionary Isaac McCoy in 1822 — to make 
the Indians friendly to the Government and to the set- 
tlers and to protect them from the sale of whiskey." 
In the same year in which preparations were made to 
establish these missions John Scares, of New York City, 
was appointed to visit the Grand River and select a 
site for the mission; and between 1823 and 1826 Isaac 
McCoy of the Care}^ Mission made several visits to 

64. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, II, 893. 

65. A Catholic mission was established there in 1833, by 

Frederic Baraga. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 81, 
90; II, 1240. In 1825, and later, provisions were 
brought from the Carey mission by lake and river. 
Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 49. 

66. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 1, 47. 

67. Rnd., I, 177. Scares seems to have selected a site some- 

where above Grand Rapids on the river. 



422 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the region. '^^ , The lack of immediate success on the 
Grand River was owing to the attitude of the Indians, 
who at times, influenced by whiskey which they prob- 
ably secured from the traders, were unfriendly; they 
are said to have burned the blacksmith shop in 1824.'^^ 
In was not until 1827 when Leonard Slater and his 
wife came to take charge of the mission that the en- 
terprise can be regarded as firmly established. McCoy 
reports that the mission was "in a state of dilapida- 
tion" at the time of his vivsit in 1829.'^^ The presence 
of Slater and his wife, however, who are said to have 
been cultured people of strong character and whose 
work there covered the remainder of the Territorial 
period, could not but have been a wholesome influence 
for the early settlement of the place. ^^ 



68. Ihid., I, 47, 48, 49, 77; McCoy, History of the Baptist Indian 

Missions, 292. 

69. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 48. 

70. McCoy, Indian Missions, 390. 

71. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 1,81; the mission lands after 

the Indian treaty of 1836 were sold and the proceeds 
divided, the Baptists receiving $12,000 and the Catholics 
$8,000. According to a writer in the Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXV, 142, Leonard Slater was bom in Worcester, Mass- 
achusetts, being on his mother's side of Scotch parentage. 
His father is said to have been a member of the Boston 
Tea Party, and his micle the Slater who established the 
first cotton mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The 
birthplace of his wife is given by this writer as Claremont, 
New Hampshire. Goss gives it as Vermont. History of 
Grand Rapids, I, 78. The family had come to the Carey 
mission the year before their advent to the Grand River 
mission, and removed with the latter after the Indian 
treaty of 1836 to Barry County. See also Mich. Hist. 
Colls., IV, 288 and Hist, of Kent County, 177. In 1852 
Slater removed to Kalamazoo. In the Civil War he 
served as a hospital nurse, dying in 1866. Goss, History 
of Grand Rapids, I, 80. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 423 

The fur trade seems to have been prosecuted m the 
Grand River Valley at least as early as 1796; after the 
War of 1812 the earliest of the traders were Rix Robin- 
son and Louis Campau. The latter was a native of 
Detroit, who estabhshed a post at the rapids on the 
Grand at about the same time as the beginning of the 
Baptist mission and became a permanent and influen- 
tial settler of Grand Rapids.'^- 

Until the year 1833 the only white people who had 
come to the site of Grand Rapids or to any part of the 
lower Grand River Valley were the traders and the 
missionaries. The first land entered from the Grand 
River Valley appears to have been that taken up on 
the site of Grand Rapids in 1831 by the trader Louis 
Campau. '^■'^ A small mission sawmill was built there in 
1832, and in the same year a postoffice was estab- 
lished of which the missionary Slater was the first 
postmaster.^"* In 1832 there were nine log cabins in 
the vicinity, built probably by the traders.'" 

72. He had formerly been employed by Detroit merchants to 

trade with the Indians in the Saginaw Valley. Goss, 
History of Grand Rapids, I, 74. There is a portrait of 
Campau as a frontispiece in Baxter's History of Grand 
Rapids. The family name is bonie by the present Cam- 
pau Square in Grand Rapids. See History of Muskegon 
and Ottawa Counties, 19-20, for a copy of Louis Campau's 
license as an Lidian trader, signed in 1822 by William 
Woodbridge. An account of Campau's fur trading is 
given on pp. 23f, of the same work. 

73. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 82. 

74. Ibid., I, 79, 564. 

75. Ibid., I, 70. In Baxter's History of Grand Rapids (p. 52), 

there is an apparently authentic sketch of the Indian 
village, mission and trading post as they were in that 
year. Goss' description in History of Grand Rapids, 
606-607, is apparently made from this sketch. 



424 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

With the year 1833 there began a period of rapid 
growth in the settlement of Grand Rapids which 
lasted until the financial crisis of 1837.'^'' In 1833 vil- 
lage lots sold for $25 which brought $560 two years 
later. ^^ Two noteworthy impulses to settlement took 
place in 1833, the platting of the rival villages of Grand 
Rapids and Kent^^ and the accession of three families 
from the group recently established at Ionia. ^^ In that 
year there appear to have been at Grand Rapids rep- 
resentatives of nine white families. ^° By the follow- 
ing year a gristmill was built, a second sawmill, and 
the first frame house. ^^ 

In the years 1835-37 the population of Grand Rapids 
is estimated to have increased from about 100 to 1,000 
people.^- The Detroit Daily Free Press for June 3, 

76. This new impulse to Grand Rapids' settlement was about 

contemporary with that at Chicago and Milwaukee. 

77. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 599. 

78. By Louis Campau and Lucius Lyon, Government surveyors. 

Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 2. 

79. History of Kent County, 218. See letter of Joel Guild, dated 

at Grand Rapids, December 23, 1833, to his brother and 
sister. He was from West Winfield, Herkimer County, 
New York. 

80. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 520. At the first township meet- 

ing April 4, 1834, nine votes were cast. Goss, History of 
Grand Rapids, I, 244. 

81. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, 564, 571; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

IV, 289. This house was built by Joel Guild, who came 
in 1833. The liimber was sawed by the old mission mill. 
This building served both as a dwelling and as the first 
public inn. See Baxter's History of Grand Rapids, 
(p. 761), for the style of frame houses in 1834. 

82. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 11. Blois, Gazetteer, 

294. Goss considers 1,000 people a great exaggeration. 
History of Grand Rapids, I, 98. John Ball's estimate for 
1837 is about 500. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 
37. There seems to have been no careful census taken 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 425 

1836, estimates the population at about 500. The 
alleged advantages of the site were then rapidly gain- 
ing pubHcity. In the first number of The Grand River 
Times, which was pubHshed at Grand Rapids April 18, 

1837, there appeared an article headed, "The Rochester 
of Michigan, "^^ in which the following claims upon 
the attention of settlers have significance. The site is 
first mentioned as a favorite with the Indians and the 
Indian traders; then comes a notice of the abundant 
water power, then faciHties for steam navigation on the 
river, the prospect of a canal to connect lake naviga- 
tion directly with Detroit, and easy connections with 
Chicago and Milwaukee; the excellence and abundance 
of timber and stone for building, the many natural 
springs, the purity of the water, and the fertility of 
the soil, follow; a description of the village is given, 
noting the extensive improvements already made, and 
the rising value of property; the healthfulness of the 
climate appears to have been regarded as a fitting 
climax. A report to the State legislature in 1837 de- 
clares, "This part of the country is being settled 
rapidly. The village of Kent is already an important 
point, and possesses many natural advantages, which 
is an earnest of its future augmentation in business 

82. Con. until 1845. The Constitution of 1835 gave one rep- 

resentative to the counties of Ottawa, Kent, Ionia, and 
CHnton. John Ball's estimate places the number of 
voters in that district in the fall of 1837 at between 700 
and 800. Mich. Htst. Colls., I, 214. 

83. There is a copy of this nvmiber of the Grand River Times 

in the Grand Rapids Public Library. The article men- 
tioned is quoted in the Memorials of the Grand River 
Valley, 12-13. See also a notice of Grand Rapids in the 
Detroit Daily Free Press for June 3, 1836, which is 
claimed to be quoted from the Adrian Watchtower. 



426 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

and population. "^^ Blois notes that the village ivS the 
seat of justice for Kent County, with "a church for 
Catholics, a printing office that issues a weekly paper, 
two banking associations, court house, twelve stores 
erected or erecting, three commodious hotels, four 
practicing physicians and six lawyers. "'^^ 

The improvement of the water power on the Grand 
River at this point seems to have begun in ISSS.^'^ It 
first received legislative attention in 1836.^^ The com- 
pilers of the House Document referred to, speak of the 
extensive water power, the navigability of the river and 
the fertile character of the lands, in view of which they 
consider this a conspicuous location for "a very large 
manufacturing town." Apparently a knowledge of the 
water power on the Grand River had made a definite 
impression on some minds at Rochester, New York; a 
part of the instructions of the Ionia colony to their 
agents in 1836 observes, "The Grand River is said 
to embrace water privileges which must be of great 
value. Look well to the village of Grand Rapids, 
and the country south of it; for that place must be of 



84. Michigan House Documents, 1837, No. 9 (E), 54. 

85. Blois, Gazetteer, 292. Baxter's History of Grand Rapids 

(pp. 762-763), contains pictures of residences of this 
period, two of which were built by well-to-do citizens 
in 1837. See John Ball's description of the houses and 
people of this time, in Goss' History of Grand Rapids, I, 
118. 

86. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 608. The dam is said not 

to have been finished until 1849, and the canal on the 
east side not until 1850. 

87. Session Laws (1835-36), 105. Act of March 4 to authorize 

the buildins; of a dam across the river. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 427 

importance. "^^ The first mills at Grand Rapids were 
built on neighboring creeks. In 1836-v37 there was in 
process of erection on the Grand River a mill known 
as the "Mammoth Mill," which is said to have been 
the largest and most expensive mill in the western 
states. ^^ The manufacture of furniture appears to have 
begun on a small scale at about this time.'-'*' 

The demands of trade were naturally miscellaneous 
and small. Provisions were very high in 1836-37 ; from 
a contemporary letter it appears that in the winter of 
1836 flour was $15 per barrel, oats $1, potatoes $1.25, 
pork $14.00 per hundred pounds,, butter $.37J, and 
other things in proportion; board was $4.50 a wcek.^^ 
Money was plentiful but most of it was spent for land. 
The high prices of 1837 were owing partly to the dis- 
tance of transporting the goods, but mainly they were 
due to the scarcity of coin and the depreciation of 
bank mediums of exchange that affected all parts of the 
country. 

In 1836 came the apparent opportunity of the ori- 

88. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 330. It is added: "We have heard 

that a railroad has been laid out from that place to 
Monroe." 

89. Blois, Gazetteer, 293. He says it was five stories high, the 

first two stories being of stone. Both lumber and flour 
were to be made by it. Blois states that it would cost 
when completed about $50,000. Goss says that in 1837 
eight sawmills were in operation within a circle of eight 
miles around Grand Rapids, cutting an average of 
3,000,000 feet of lumber a year. History ■ of Grand 
Rapids, I, 565. 

90. History of Kent County, 274. Before 1850, according to 

Goss, there were only three important furniture factories 
in Grand Rapids. Goss, Hist, of Grand Rapids, II, 
1045. 

91. Ihid., I, 137. 



428 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ginal proprietors of the village to amass great wealth. 
Lots are said to have sold at $50 a foot on Canal and 
Kent streets. ^^ But" recklessness of speculation in the 
Grand River Valley brought profits to naught. A good 
illustration is furnished by the experience of Antoine 
Campau, which does not appear to have been unusual ; 
for a piece of land which he had bought he was offered 
successively $100, $300, $500, $800 and upward; he is 
quoted as saying: "I thought if it was worth so much 
to them, it was worth so much to me. But finally I 
offered to sell. Then the value dropped and every 
offer was lower than before. Finally I was offered 
$300, and thought I would go down and see the place. 
When I got there I couldn't see it. I asked everybody 
where it was, and hired a friend to look it up I 
could not find it, he could not find it, the record could 
not find it, nobody could find it — it was under more 
than twenty feet of water. "^'^ It appears to have been 
located well out in Lake Michigan. Few of those who 
received enormous sums for their Grand Rapids lands 
got rich, because most of them reinvested their money 
in other lands and in the following year land was a 
drug on the market. 

The financial panic, which began to be felt in De- 
troit as early as June, 1837, was not long in affecting 

92. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 95. According to Goss, all 

the lands of the village east of the river were bought 
before 1836, those on the west side not being for sale 
until after the extinction of the Indian title and the 
public surveys. The earliest patent granted on the west 
side was in 1839. History of Grand Rapids, I, 85. See 
for plat of village in 1836, Baxter's History of Grand 
Rapids, XIV. 

93. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 98. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 429 

conditions in the Grand River Valley, John Ball,^** 
who was in Detroit just before and after the crash 
came, reports that though in April all seemed to 
promise well, by June "faces had so changed that one 
could hardly recognize his acquaintances; and it was 
taken as an insult for one to speak of land opera- 
tions. "^^ 

The population of Grand Rapids in 1836-37 was 
made up chiefly of mechanics,, land speculators, and 
the French who had come there through the influence 
of Louis Campau.^'"' As sources of the American popu- 
lation, mention is oftenest made of the states of New 

94. John Ball's activities furnish a good illustration of land 

buying at this time and in the years following. He came 
to Michigan in 1836 as an agent of parties in Troy, New- 
York, though his contract permitted him to invest in 
the lands of any nonslaveholding State in the West, 
he to receive one-fourth of the profits. At Detroit he 
was directed to the Grand River covmtry. It seems to 
be the unanimous testimony of writers on that region 
that he did more for the early settlement of Grand 
Rapids and vicinity than any other one man. See his 
extensive narrative of early experiences in Memorials of 
the Grand River Valley, 13ff. This narrative is incom- 
pletely quoted in Goss' History of Grand Rapids, I, 113. 
Baxter's History of Grand Rapids, (112, 113), contains 
a biographical sketch and portrait of Mr. Ball. See also 
Michigan Biographies, p. 64, for his public career in 
Michigan. 

95. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 23, 42, 43. There 

appears to have lieen more speculation in the vicinity 
of Grand Rapids than at Ionia. Ibid., 34. In a settler's 
letter written from Grand Rapids in the winter of 1836, 
quoted by Goss, the writer says, "I have had more silver 
and gold in my house this winter than a pair of horses 
could draw." History of Grand Rapids, I, 137. 

96. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XXVIII, 95 ; Detroit Daily Free Press, June 3, 1836. 



430 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

York, Vermont and Connecticut." About 1837 the 
^troubles which culminated in the so-called "Patriot 
War" seem to have caused a considerable immigration 
to the Grand River Valley. ^^ 

Religious and cultural institiitions were even at this 
early day not neglected. A school district was organ- 
ized for Grand Rapids and its vicinity in 1835, and in 
that year was opened the first school that was ex- 
clusively for white children. ^^ A branch of the Uni- 
versity had been located there. In 1835 the Ohio con- 
ference of the Methodist church indicated the chief 
available centers for religious instruction at that time 
in establishing preaching stations along the Grand 
River at Grand Rapids, Ionia, Portland, Grandville and 
Grand Haven. '"" New England traditions appear in 
the establishment of a Congregational Society at Grand 
Rapids in 1836.^°^ Despite the early Baptist mission 
and the labors of the Methodists and the Presbyter- 



97. See in particular Memorials oj the Grand River Valley, 37. 

The county was named for the jurist, Chancellor Kent, 
of New York. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 214; Goss, History 
of Grand Rapids, I, 486. 

98. Memorials oj the Grand River Valley, 25. See for names of 

prominent early settlers of Grand Rapids, Mich. Hist. 
Colls., IV, 293; V, 438; XXXV, 87-106. 

99. Goss, History of Grand Rapids, I, 319-320. A frame school- 

house was not built until 1839. Ibid., II, 1124. 

100. At Grand Rapids the first Methodist Society was estab- 

lished in 1835-36, hut the first Church building, the 
Division Street Methodist Church, was dedicated in 
1843. Ihid., II, 1127. 

101. Ibid., II, 1145. The property of the Park Congregational 

Church was bought by that society in 1831. Ibid., II, 
1147. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 431 

ians, the Congregational element seems to have been 
predominant in Grand Rapids in 1837.^°^ 

There were in 1837 very few white settlers in Kent 
County outside of Grand Rapids and its immediate 
neighborhood. The most promising points for villages 
seem to have been Grand ville, Ada, and Lowell. For 
Grand ville, which was located some miles below the 
Rapids of the Grand, Blois records an estimation of 
about 200 people, and from his account it must have 
been considered a brisk rival of Grand Rapids.^ °^ Ada, 
at the junction of the Grand and the Thornapple, is 
mentioned by Blois as containing a postoffice and a 
few inhabitants. ^°'^ He does not mention Lowell, but 
this place seems to have received settlers in 1835-36.^°^ 
The first settlers in this vicinity came from Scipio, 
New York, in 1836.^°^" 

In 1833, the same year in which Grand Rapids re- 

102. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 438; Blois mentions besides the 

Catholic Church only the Presbyterians and the Epis- 
copalians as having "organized churches and settled 
ministers." Gazetteer, 292. 

103. Blois, Gazetteer, 296. He mentions a postoffice, seven saw 

mills, three stores, one hotel, two smitheries, a sash 
factory, a warehouse, several mechanic shops, two 
lawyers, and a physician. The date of first settlement 
is given as 1835. 

104. Ibid., 245. He mentions also, under the name of Erie, 

what appears to have been a rival village near the same 
site. Ibid., 284. Ada was the site of a trading post 
established in 1821 by Rix Robinson who became a 
prominent pioneer of the Grand River Valley, and later 
a State senator from Kent County. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
IV, 288; Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 171. For 
his public career see Michigan Biographies, 559. 

105. See History of Lowell, in the appendix to Baxter's History 

of Grand Rapids, 798. 
105a. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 210, 



432 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ceived its first marked stimulation to white settlement, 
a colony of sixty-three persons settled at Ionia. ^^"^ It 
comprised six families, together with a few adult single 
persons, imder the leadership of Samuel Dexter. Dex- 
ter was a native of Rhode Island, had served in the 
legislature of his adopted State, New York, and was 
destined to become a leading pioneer in the Grand 
River Valley.^°^ In 1832 by the aid of an Indian guide 
from Detroit he located the site of Ionia, then a resort 
of Indians and traders. It is said that Dexter would 
have preferred the site where Lyons is had it not been 
previously taken. ^°^ In the spirit of Roger Williams, 
Dexter purchased the rights of the Indians in the crops 
they had planted at the site of Ionia, and their five 
bark wigwams made the first shelter of the colony. ^°^ 
This appears not to have been a formally organized 
colony like those at Vermontville in Eaton County and 
Duplain in Clinton County but simply a band of inde- 
pendent settlers. They came to the site of Ionia on 
the representations of Mr. Dexter, selecting indepen- 
dently their own land after their arrival. "° The 
nucleus of the band, starting from Frankfurt village in 
Herkimer County, New York, gathered others on 
their way to Michigan, particularly at Utica and at 
Syracuse.^" The hymn of thanksgiving which was 

106. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1, 193; V, 326; IX, 234; XXVIII, 147. 

107. Michigan Biographies, 227. This was not Samuel W. 

Dexter for whom a village is named in Washtenaw 
Coimty. So far as the writer can learn there was no 
relation between these two settlements. 

108. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 137. 

109. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 560; XXVIII, 146. 

110. Ibid., XIV, 562. 

111. Ibid., XXVIII, 145. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 433 

composed and sung on their arrival at the site of Ionia 
reflects the deep religious nature of these settlers. ^^^ 

Settlement in this neighborhood increased gradually 
during the years 1834-35. In 1836 as a result of the 
Indian treaty the Kalamazoo land district was sub- 
divided and a land office was opened at Ionia in view 
of the need of a more convenient point for settlers to 
enter land purchased in the Grand River Valley. ^'^ 
The flow of land seekers and speculators to that center 
is described as resembling the stir of a cotmtry village 
in fair time. Many applicants are said to have waited 
weeks for the chance to make their entry at the land 
office. ^^^ Aioney was plentiful, trade flourished and 
taverns did a profitable business."'' However, it is 
commonly said that the establishment of the land 
office at Ionia was in the long run unfortunate for 
both the village and the county. On the tide of im- 
migration came many poor men who were unprovided 
with specie, but who if they could have obtained it 
on favorable teiTQS would soon have added to the 
wealth of the county the products of industrious home 

112. A copy of this hvmn appears in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 

147. 

113. Dexter had been obliged to go to White Pigeon in St. 

Joseph County to enter his original purchase. History 
of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 137. An item in the 
Detroit Daily Advertiser of September 9, 1836, setting 
the event for October, gave intending purchasers a 
month's notice of this greater convenience, though the 
lands reccntlv acquired from the Indians were not on 
sale until 1839. 

114. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 141. 

115. Supplies were brought from Detroit and Pontiac, and the 

first goods for a store are said to have been poled up the 
river from Grand Haven in that year. Ibid., 140, 141. 

55 



434 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

builders. It is charged that the officials practiced 
favoritism and that they were in collusion with a 
broker's office which raked off twenty cents on the 
dollar at the expense of the poorer settlers, who were 
most in need of its services. Many settlers turned 
away rather than be thus defrauded ; much of the best 
land fell into the hands of speculators who held it out 
of market for many years, awaiting higher prices. ^^"^ 
Those settlers who did stay seem not, as in Kent 
county, to have had the platting of villages and the 
sale of corner lots chiefly in view, but gave attention 
at once to the planting of crops in preparation for an 
independent living. ^^'^ 

It is significant that Blois should give a much less 
extended notice of "Ionia Center" than he does of 
Grandville in Kent County. Ionia contained accord- 
ing to his account, besides the postoffice and land 
office, a flouring mill, three sawmills in the vicinity, a 
turning machine and sash factory, two stores, a 
lawyer and a physician; and several fine buildings are 
mentioned as having been built during 1837.^^^ 

Besides Ionia, only two points in that county appear 
to have been thought sufficiently central to the popula- 
tion in 1837 to have postoffices; these were Lyons and 
Portland."^ The village of Lyons was founded in 1836 

116. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 473; History of Ionia and Montcalm 

Counties, 142. 

117. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 34. 

118. Blois, Gazetteer, 303-304. The village was incorporated in 

1835 and became the county seat the following year. 
Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 193; III, 474. 

119. Lyons obtained a postoffice in 1836, and Portland in 1837. 

The only other offices established before 1840 were at 
Maple, Otisco, and Waterville (1838). History of Ionia 
and Montcalm Counties, 125. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 435 

by Lucius Lyon, a well-known United States surveyor 
who owned part of the plat of Grand Rapids and had 
an interest in many budding villages of the period. ^^° 
The village of Lyons is given fully as much space and 
attention by Blois as Ionia ;^-^ at Portland there appear 
to have been a half dozen families in 1837. Saranac 
village, which Blois does not notice, is mentioned in 
the Detroit Daily Free Press for January 16, 1836, as 
having been platted at a power site on the Grand 
River at the mouth of Lake Creek. Almost all of the 
present townships of the county had received their 
first settlers by 1837.^^2 

The early settlers of Ionia County came mainly from 
New York.^^^ A settlement in Boston Township in 

120. Ihid., 237; Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 65. Lucms 

Lyon was also proprietor of the village of Schoolcraft 
on Prairie Ronde in Kalamazoo County. His impor- 
tance was sufficient to make him the first congressional 
delegate to be elected west of Detroit (1832-35), and 
also to make him a United States Senator in 1835. He 
was a native of Shelburne, Vermont. Michigan Biog- 
raphies, 426. It is said that a mill was started on 
Libhart Creek about two miles west of Lyons in 1833 
by New York parties. 

121. Blois, Gazetteer, 315. Among other things Blois credited it 

with two stores, "a fine hotel" and "several elegant pri- 
vate dwellings," between twenty and thirty more being 
contracted for. See Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 
37, where this view is much modified. 

122. The population of the two organized townsliips of the 

county in 1837 was 1,028, Michigan Legislative Manual 
(1838), 75; Session Laws, (1837), 36, 31. In the follow- 
ing year the county was divided into six townships. 
Session Laws (1838), 79, 80, 83. Kent County had in 
1837 a population of 2,022, Michigan Legislative Manual 
(1838), 71, 75. 

123. History of Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 175, 223, 265, 278. 

As noted above the members of the Ionia colony were 
mainly from Herkimer County, New York, and the first 



436 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

1836-37 is said to have been made by a Vermont 
family, followed by a number of others from that 
State. ^^^ The earliest settlers of Portland (1833) were 
among the few Englishmen in the county at this 
period.^ "^ 

As in Ionia and Kent counties, the first entrance 
of the white man to Ottawa County was marked 
by the establishment of a trading post for traffic 
with the Indians. ^^''' The site of Grand Haven is 
said to have been chosen in 1827 by the fur trader 
Rix Robinson as headquarters for the operations of 
the American Fur Company in western Michigan.^" 
Robinson was the sole manager of some twenty trading 
posts of that company, and the consequent importance 
of the point as headquarters gave it a number of the 
company's buildings and a certain preeminence in the 
appearance of a settlement that was attractive to home 
seekers. Apparently foreseeing the early settlement of 

123. Con. settlers at Lyons were from that State. Probably some 

of these were bom in New England states. Samuel 
Dexter was a native of Rhode Island, and Lucius Lyons, 
of Vermont. 

124. Ibid., 192. 

125. Mich. Hist. Colls., XIV, 622; XVIL 411; Memorials of the 

Grand River Valley, 37. 

126. The name of the county is derived from the Ottawa Indians, 

and is said to mean "trader." An account of these 
Indians in this county is given in the History of Ottawa 
County, 18-19. 

127. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 235. See History of Ottawa County, 

20-21, for a recital of Robinson's trading operations at 
this point. Robinson's headquarters are usually asso- 
ciated with Ada, above Grand Rapids at the mouth of 
the Thomapple. In 1857 a monument was erected at 
Ada to his memory. He was a State senator from Kent 
County, 1846-49, and a delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention of 1850. Michigan Biographies, 559. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 437 

the place, in the early twenties Robinson preempted a 
quarter section of land on the river front. ^^^ In 1833 
a settler of Ionia came to Grand Haven as a clerk 
in his employ. ^-^ 

The first beginnings at Grand Haven that looked 
toward interests other than the fur trade came with 
two events of 1834, the arrival of William M. Ferry 
and his family and the organization of the Grand 
Haven Company. Ferry came to that place as the 
agent of Robert Stuart, of Detroit, a Scotchman in 
the employ of the American Fur Company, who had 
bought a half interest in Rix Robinson's preemption 
on the lower Grand. ^^" In 1835 the Grand Haven 
Company in which he was concerned laid out the vil- 
lage, built a mill and bought land there. They also 
became owners of two mills at Grandville and built a 
boat on the river. In the winter of 1835-36 the little 
colony experienced what old settlers long remembered 

128. History of Ottawa County, 38, 39. 

129. Ibid., 38. 

130. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 238-239; XXX, 572-573; History of 

Ottawa County, 38, 39. As related in the History of 
Ottawa County, William M. Ferry was bom in Granby, 
Mass., in 1796, of a poor family. He early taught 
school, graduating from Union College at Schenectady, 
New York, and he later studied theology in the seminary 
at New Brunswick, New Jersey. He established a mis- 
sion at Mackinac about 1822. Ill health is assigned as 
the reason for his leaving the mission in 1834 and enter- 
ing into business relations. He was for many }'ears a 
strong religious and cultural influence at Grand Haven, 
dying there in 1876. His public bequests are said to 
have amounted to $137,000. His family gained some 
distinction in State and national affairs. Michigan 
Biographies, 266. His wife was a native of Ashfield. 
Mass. 



438 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

as "the starving time,"^'"^^ and in 1836-37 shared with 
the rest of the Grand River Vahey in an era of specula- 
tion and subsequent hard times. During the period 
of speculation Ferry and Robinson owned the village 
plat, and lots are said to have been held at high prices. ^^" 
By 1837 the village contained "three steam sawmills, 
two stores, a large grocery establishment, six spacious 
warehouses, a druggist and two physicians." Blois 
credits it further with "upward of 400 inhabitants" and 
speaks optimistically of its advantages for trade and 
commerce. ^^^ A vessel carrying Ivmiber and passengers 
is said to have begun to make regular trips between 
Grand Haven and Chicago in 1836. 

The first settlement of consequence in Ottawa County 
outside of Grand Haven was made in 1836 by several 
related families who settled up the Grand River in 
what was later called from their family name, Robin- 
son Township. Their number is commonly given as 
forty-two. They appear to have been relatives of 
Rix Robinson. ^'^^ At about the same time Dr. Timothy 
Eastman, a native of Maine, settled up the river in 
the pinery at the site of the village which bears his 
name. 

Besides Grand Haven, Blois mentions no village cen- 
ters in this county that are known as such today. 
There was a notable attempt however to foster a vil- 

131. See Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 416, for an 

account of Nathan White's expedition to Battle Creek 
for food. 

132. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 40. 

133. Blois, Gazetteer, 291. Grand Haven secured the county 

seat in 1838. 

134. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 415; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

IX, 282. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 439 

lage intended to outrival both Grand Haven and 
Grand Rapids, which may serve as a typical illustration 
of the so-called "paper town" of that day. As the story 
is related in the History of Ottawa Comity, the village 
was started by capitalists of New York and Philadel- 
phia who formed for the purpose a joint stock arrange- 
ment known as the Port Sheldon Company. The com- 
pany had wished to build a village on the site of Grand 
Haven, but the Grand Haven Company was first on 
the ground, and satisfactory terms could not be made. 
This was the feature apparently that led to the deter- 
mination to crush out Grand Haven by getting the 
start of it in development. A site was chosen on the 
north side of what is now Pigeon Lake or Creek on the 
lake shore south of Grand Haven. Operations were 
begun in the fall of 1837. Lake vessels brought provi- 
sions, together with a few small houses ready to set 
up, and about forty men. Thereupon a city of 124 
blocks was laid out. An elegantly engraved map was 
made of the city and harbor and widely circulated. 
Roads were cut, a charter was obtained for a railroad, 
a lighthouse was built, and a hotel was erected at a 
cost, it is said, of from thirty to forty thousand dol- 
lars; $15,000 were expended on a mill; fifteen small 
dwellings were built; it is said that in 1838 about 300 
people were there, mainly the employees of the com- 
pany. While the people on the Grand River "thanked 
God for a steady supply of salt pork and flour," says 
one writer, the people at Port Sheldon "revelled in 
champagne and sumptuous suppers." But a harbor 
was found impracticable. The financial crash obliter- 
ated the "city." It is said that the hotel and thirty 



440 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

lots sold for less than the cost of the glass and paint, 
and that the remainder of the land was bought for its 
hemlock bark.^^^ 

The only line of settlement in Ottawa County in 
this period was the Grand River. It was practically 
the only highway through the forest and hence the 
best means of communication with the other settle- 
ments of the valley. The first farms were on the south 
side of the river, the lands on the other side not being 
surveyed until after the Indian treaty of 1836. There 
were a few settlers on the north side very early, but 
they were "squatters." The land did not come on the 
market until 1839. It appears to be true that the 
number of these squatters was increased by the action 
of speculators who rapidly bought up the lands on the 
south side of the river and held them for a rise in 
prices. ^'^'^ Blois reports in 1838 that settlement was 
rapidly increasing on both sides of the river. ^" In 
1837 there appears to have been a squatter at Lamont, 
a point which became a center for the radiation of set- 
tlement into the future townships of Polkton and 
Talmadge.^^^ The heavy pine land had little attrac- 
tion for farmers and was held for its pine largely by 
nonresidents. Robinson Township, two decades after 

135. History of Ottawa County, 35-36; Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 

227-228; Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 486-491. 
Port Sheldon is not mentioned by Blois, but he men- 
tions Charleston and Ottawa, both on the Grand at 
the junction of small creeks, and obviously "paper 
towns," (pp. 262, 336). 

136. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 252, 255, 263, 280; History of Ottawa 

County, 26. 

137. Blois, Gazetteer, 236. 

138. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 40, 503. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 441 

it received the settlers above mentioned, mustered but 
eighteen voters at the first township election. ^•'^^ 

The lands of the present Muskegon County were 
included at that time in Ottawa. Only the Indian 
traders, who were more or less transient, visited them 
until 1836-37^" when very slight beginnings of settle- 
ment were made about Muskegon Lake near the 
mouth of Muskegon River.^*^ A steam mill was built 
in 1837 by a stock company whose members lived 
mainly at Detroit and Ann Arbor; but the financial 
panic killed the enterprise, and the machinery was 
moved to Grand Rapids. ^''^ The village of Muskegon 
was not platted until 1849.^^^ The county was not 
established until a decade later. ""^ 

The sources of the earliest settlers in Ottawa County 
were much the same as in the other counties of the 
lower Grand River Valley. Apparently a somewhat 
larger proportion came directly from New England 
states. ^■^^ The first owners of the village plat of Grand 

139. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, 495. For this reason, 

after the first river locations, it was the lands away from 
the river that were taken up and settled the most rapidh' . 
Ibid., 500. 

140. History of Muskegon County, 49-50; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 

291. 

141. History of Muskegon County, 31, 51 ; Memorials of the Grand 

River Valley, 436, 439. 

142. Memorials of the Grand River Valley, ,432-434; History of 

Muskegon County, 24. 

143. History of Muskegon County, 50. 

144. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 473. 

145. Mich. Hist. Colls., IX, 263 for a notice of the first farmers 

of the county. Memorials of the Grand River Valley 
(in the supplement, pp. 1-74), contains biographical 
sketches of the pioneers of the Grand River Valley. 



442 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Haven are said to have been born in Granby, Massa- 
chusetts, and Cayuga County, New York.^'^'^ 

The settlement of Eaton County differed in at least 
one marked respect from that of the three counties on 
the lower Grand River, in that its first important cen- 
ters of population, with one exception, were not on 
the main stream of that river. This was partly be- 
cause of the heavy timber along the Grand in that 
portion of its course, and partly because the Grand 
was not so central to the county; and again, water 
power was furnished elsewhere in more open land. In 
1832 Isaac E. Crary, of Marshall, bought land upon 
which in 1835 he platted the village of Bellevue."^ 
With him was associated Reverend John D. Pierce, 
also of Marshall, at whose solicitation the site is said 
to have received its first settler in 1834, from Ithaca, 
New York.^**^ The site of Bellevue was chosen for 
water power, openness and beauty. It was a burr-oak 
plain on the banks of the Battle Creek, said to have 
been the only valuable power site on that stream. ^^^ 
Its first settler, who arrived on a June day in 1834, 

146. History of Ottawa Cotinty, 38; Michigan Biographies, 559. 

147. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 387; XXIX, 349-350; see the History 

of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 405-410, for the first land 
entries and early settlement of the county. 

148. This was the second settler in the county. The first settle- 

ment was made in the preceding year in the openings a 
little south of Bellevue by a native of Montgomery, 
Maryland, who emigrated to JMichigan from Palmyra, 
Ontario County, New York, in 1833. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXIX, 352; History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 351. 
The early settlers of Bellevue are said to have come 
mainly from New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. 
History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 407. 

149. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 345. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 443 

describes it with the exaggerated enthusiasm of the 
satisfied pioneer as "the most beautiful spot I have 
ever seen;" the fragrance of its grass and flowers, he 
declares, reminded him of the Garden of Eden.^^° 
The pioneer luxury of sawed lumber was supplied by a 
sawmill built there in 1834 or 1835, owned apparent- 
ly by Mr. Pierce and Mr. Crary of Marshall; it sup- 
plied also the first lumber used at Battle Creek. ^''^ 
The population of Bellevue in 1835 is said to have 
comprised nine families and six single men, but such 
was its growth that in 1838 Blois records an estimated 
population of about 400.^-'''- He says it then had three 
sawmills and that preparations were being made for a 
flouring mill. Enthiisiastic imagination placed it "at 
the head of navigation for boats" on Battle Creek. 
Among, the natural resources contributing largely to 
its early development was a large area of limestone of 
excellent quality which is said to have been worked 
almost from the beginning of settlement there. The 
desire to market the lime led to unsuccessful attempts 
to navigate the Creek to Kalamazoo River as early as 
1835.^^^ Blois reports six kilns in operation, which 
supplied the country with lime for a distance of fifty 
miles around. ^^^ As "the jumping-off place into the 
wilderness" northward from the Territorial Road, and 



150. Ibid., Ill, 386. The name of Bellevue is suggestive of its 

original beatity. 

151. Ibid., Ill, 385, 389. The position of Bellevue on the Battle 

Creek, a branch of the Kalamazoo River, classifies it 
properly with the settlements of that river. 

152. Blois, Gazetteer, 254; see Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 392, for the 

early settlers of 1835-36. 

153. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385, 394. 

154. Blois, Gazetteer, 254. 



444 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

"the coming-out place of the burrowing settler" the 
site of Bel evue was early fixed upon for a hotel to 
accommodate travelers; the first hotel was built in 
1836.^^' The village gained much early importance 
from the sessions of the county court held there, it 
being some time before the county buildings were 
erected at Charlotte. 

In the same year that Mr. Crary purchased the site 
of Bellevue(1832) the United States surveyor of the 
county bought the site of Charlotte ; and in the follow- 
ing year, before there was a white settler in the county, 
he secured for it the county seat.^^*^ Through his 
efforts, it is said, Charlotte received its first family in 
1836, by way of Bellevue.^" It seems to have been 
not until 1837 that the village plat was recorded. ^^^ 
This fertile central prairie would doubtless have been 
settled more rapidly had it not been for the dense 
forests characteristic of this part of the county, and 
lack of water power. 

One of the most notable of the early New England 
settlements in Michigan was that at Vermontville, a 

155. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385. 

156. The surveyor, George W. Barnes, appears to have settled at 

Gull Prairie in Kalamazoo County, and did not become 
a resident of Charlotte. History of Ingham and Eaton 
Counties, 354, 380, 381, 518. The village was named for 
the wife of one of the first settlers, who purchased the 
site from Mr. Barnes. Ibid., 385, quoting a letter dated 
1835. 

157. Ibid., 380. Pages 381 and 457 of the same volume give 

1835 as the date of the first settlers. The date 1837 is 
given in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 366 

158. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 385; the names of 

the four original proprietors of the village are given in 
Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 342. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 445 

formally organized colony of Vermont settlers with 
definitely expressed religious and educational pur- 
poses. ^^^ It was not unlike a Puritan exodus from 
England, or like that led by the Reverend Thomas 
Hooker from Boston to the Connecticut Valley in 
1636.^'^° The character of the colony appears in the 
nature of the compact formed among its members — ■ 
the "Rules and Regulations of the Union Colony." 
The essential principles were education and religion. In 
the preamble, reference was made to material prosper- 
ity and to the advantages of association, but these 
were evidently regarded only as means to the end 
upon which the founders laid all of the emphasis. ^""'^ 

A writer has observed that the records show the 
Vermontville church to have played an important part 
in the government of the early village.^''- The propor- 

159. It is given an extended notice in Mrs. Mathews' Expansion 

of New England. The portion of Mrs. Mathews' work 
that is devoted to Michigan is worthy of careful read- 
ing. In choosing Vermontville, however, the author 
took for illustration an exceptional settlement instead 
of the prevailing type. 

160. Indeed the portion of Vermont from which these settlers 

came had been settled some fifty years before from Con- 
necticut and Massachusetts. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII 
218; XXXI, 183. 

161. A copy of the "Rules" is printed in Mich. Hist. Colls., 

XXVIII, 204, and in the History of Ingham and Eaton 
Counties, 517. The third clause of the preamble reads. 
"Whereas, we believe that a removal to the West may 
be the means of promoting our temporal interests, and 
we trust to be made subservient to Christ's kingdom." 
Clause six is significant for education, "We also agree 
that, for the benefit of our children and the rising gen- 
eration, we will endeavor, so far as possible, to carry 
with and perpetuate among us the same literary privi- 
leges that wc are permitted here to enjoy." 

162. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 256-257. 



446 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tion of church members in the colony was large; it is 
said that of the heads of families in the original colony 
all but two were members of the Congregational 
Church, or became so.^*^^ The principles of government 
exercised directly by the people were thus trans- 
planted to the new land both through church and 
town-meeting. It was probably no small advantage 
from the viewpoint of material prosperity that the vil- 
lage early made, as at Romeo, a reputation for culture 
and good government.^*^* 

These settlers are said to have come almost entirely 
from the Vermont counties of Addison, Bennington and 
Rutland, a region that was commonly referred to as 
the Champlain Valley. ^®^ The leader, the Reverend 
Sylvester Cochrane, was a Congregational minister at 
East Poultney; the "Rules" were signed at Castleton. 
The native states of many of the settlers, however, 
were probably Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

There was a great variety of occupations represented, 
comprising farmers, merchants and physicians ; a wheel 
wright, a cooper, a tanner and furrier; a cabinet 
maker, a chair maker, a tailor, a printer, a black 
smith, a machinist, a student and a surveyor; besides 
the clergyman. Farmers^^^ made up fully one-half of 
the number. The great variety of others, one of each, 
suggests that some sort of selection may have been 

163. Ibid. 

164. See interesting observations upon this phase of settlement 

in Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 390. 

165. In the History of Ingham and ECiton Counties, 518, are given 

the name, residence and occupation of each of the forty- 
two signers of the "rules," but only twenty-two of these 
appear to have become settlers in the colony. 

166. See note above. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 447 

made, but it is qviite probable that conditions in Ver- 
mont did not affect specially any particular class; 
farmers were naturally the most numerous in the com- 
munity; the ''Michigan fever" was probably prevalent 
there, emigration having been in process from that 
region for some years to New York, Ohio, Illinois, 
Wisconsin and Michigan.^" 

The character of the "promised land" as outHned by 
the Rev. Sylvester Cochrane was not different from 
what was usually desired by settlers emigrating to 
Michigan. The site of this colony was to be health- 
ful, with good water, and a rich and varied soil, in- 
terspersed with wood and prairie; it should be if 
possible on or near a waterfall, with prospect of speedy 
settlement and good markets, and where a canal or 
railroad might cross, or in the center of a county near 
some navigable water ;^'^^ in addition, the area of the 
site should be at least three miles square. The agents 
of the company, like those of the Rochester colony in 
Clinton County, are said to have prospected without 
success in Barry County and to have been attracted 
to Eaton County by chance information from a sur- 
veyor whom they met at Battle Creek. ^"^^ On in- 
vestigating they were disappointed to find that in the 
openings all lands as large as the desired area were 
taken. At length they found a place which resembled 
closely the native Champlain Valley. It was on the 

167. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 203; XXXI, 183. Vermont 

settlers were among the earliest to settle in Michigan, 
as the reminiscences, diaries, memoranda and papers in 
the Michigan Historical Collections abundantly show. 

168. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 206. 

169. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVIII, 209. 



448 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Indian trail, hardly yet a road, from Marshall to 
Ionia, but it lacked many of the advantages desired; 
there was no waterfall, and there was no navigable 
water except for very small boats; it was in dense 
timber, removed from the center of the county and 
distant from markets. ^^° The situation well illustrates 
the amount and condition of settlement in the county 
at that time. 

The first settlers of this colony came in 1836, but 
there was a larger immigration in 1837-38. It was not 
an auspicious time to begin a colony, especially in dense 
timber and with other handicaps; for the panic came 
and the "Michigan fever" lost its grip on intending 
settlers. The colony found itself the possessor of much 
land and timber that would have to wait for a rise in 
prices to be profitable. But the colony had the signal 
advantage of moral purpose which enabled it to survive 
the hard times. Helpful relations were early estab- 
lished with Bellevue, Charlotte, Hastings, Ionia and 

170. Ibid., XXVIII, 212. Apparently several entries of land 
had been made there since 1829, though not by settlers. 
History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 350. By one 
Vermont settler of 1836 near this site the lands of this 
township are said to have been prefen*ed to a chance in 
Chicago. He is quoted as saying that he "did not want 
any land in a mud hole." It is said that the land which 
he then could have bought in Chicago for $500 has since 
become the site of the city hall. Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXI, 182. See the diagram and original plat of the 
village with the names of the settlers in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXVIII, 211. It contained thirty-six lots of ten acres 
each, arranged in the typical New England "square." 
The farm lots were grouped about it. It is said that 
a fund of $6,000 was made up by the original subscri- 
bers. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 449 

Battle Creek as the nearest markets and depots of 
supply. ^^^ 

On the site of Eaton Rapids there are said to have 
been three houses in 1837, and a sawmill in process of 
building. ^'^- As the name suggests, the place was 
chosen for a mill site at the rapids on the Grand River, 
and its first settlers were interested in the neighboring 
timber. The movement to this part of the cotmty was 
apparently independent of that which entered at Belle- 
vue, and the two streams of immigration did not meet 
for a considerable time.^^^ 

While in 1835 a few acres of land were bought in 
what became Eaton Rapids Township, it was not until 
the next year that extensive buying took place there 
as elsewhere in the county. ^^* In that year the 
"Montgomery Plains," near Eaton Rapids, were set- 
tled by four brothers of that name, one of whom later 
became a member of the State legislature. ^^'^ 

Above Eaton Rapids, on the Grand River in Delta 
Township a little west of Lansing, a power site became 
the nucleus of settlement in the northeastern part of 
the county. An unsuccessful attempt to found a col- 

171. There appear to have been fifty-one resident tax-payers in 

the township in 1844. The colony was of enough con- 
sequence to be noticed by Blois in 1838 in his Gazetteer, 
371. 

172. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 466. The sawmill 

was being built by a firm that built the mill at Spicer- 
ville in 1836. This firm founded the village. Eaton 
Rapids had apparently not gained sufficient importance 
by 1838 to be mentioned by Blois. 

173. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 385. 

174. Ibid., Ill, 430. 

175. Ibid., XXIX, 368, 370; Michigan Biographies, A6S; History 

of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 461, 475, 477. 
57 



450 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

lege there on the model of Oberlin, by parties from 
Ohio and Massachusetts, failed as a result of the hard 
times that followed 1837.^^^ By 1837 considerable 
groups of settlers had located at "Moetown" in Brook- 
field Township and at the "Canada Settlement" in 
Oneida Township.^" 

The most rapid increase of population would natur- 
ally have been in the vicinity of the original settle- 
ments, but the influence of speculators in holding out 
of market large areas which they early purchased in 
these desirable localities made early settlement on the 
whole quite as slow there as in less favored places. 
This speculation was done mainly by parties who 
never became residents and towards whom the actual 
settlers had much bitterness of feeling. ^'^^ 

In 1835 there are said to have been but four voters 
in the one township which comprised all of Eaton 
County. In 1837 the county had three townships, 
with a combined population of 1,913. Almost half of 
the people were then in the neighborhood of Bellevue.^^^ 
The sources of this population are various, but it was 

176. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 159; XXIX, 363, 365; History of Ing- 

ham and Eaton Counties, 451. 

177. Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 386; XXII, 502; XXIX, 356, 376; 

History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 430. 

1/8. A good illustration of this was in the vicinity of "Moe- 
town," in connection with which a writer in Mich. Hist. 
Colls., XXIX, 356, has given an account of the attitude 
of the settlers towards these speculators, most of whom 
were nonresident. See also Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 
353, 355, 358, 360, 373, 380; History of Ingham and 
Eaton Counties, 417-419, 486. 

179. Session Laws (1837), 37, 40; Michigan Legislative Manual 
(1838), 71. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 451 

mainly from New York.^^° Vermont was largely rep- 
resented in Vermontville and in a few others of the 
present townships. ^^^ Massachusetts contributed a 
small proportion. Some were from Ohio.^^- There 
were very few settlers of foreign origin, the Canada 
settlement representing the most numerous groups ^^ 
aside from a small number who came originally from 
Ireland.i«4 

Barry County^ ^^ had at the time the State was ad- 
mitted to the Union, a less degree of settlement than 
any other county in Michigan. ^^*^ It had about one- 
half the population of Eaton County eastward of it, 
or of Ionia County above it. To the west, Allegan 
county numbered three times its population, and north- 
ward in Kent County there were over four times as 

180. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 358, 365, 373. 375, 376, 380, 381, 

384; History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 384, 451, 486, 
494, 509, 528. 

181. Windsor Township was settled largely from Windsor Coim- 

ty, Vermont. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 387; History 
of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 538. 

182. The original Spicerville colony of ten persons were mainly 

from Portage Coimty, Ohio. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 159; 
III, 386; XXII, 502, 505; XXIX, 363, 367, 372. 

183. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXIX, 376. 

184. Ibid., XXIX, 370, 378; History of Ingham and Eaton Coun- 

ties, 475, 477. For the names of the first settlers of the 
coimty see Mich. Hist. Colls., Ill, 395-401. 

185. The name is derived from William T. Barry who was Post- 

master General in Jackson's cabinet at the time that the 
county was laid out in 1829. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 
111-112. 

186. It was only slightly exceeded by the population of Ingham 

or Clinton Coirnty. 



452 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

many people. Immediately on the south were Cal- 
houn, and Kalamazoo counties, the lesser of which had 
a population twelve times greater than that of Barry.^" 
It was not until two years after Michigan became a 
State that the county government was organized, ^^^ 
though its township government began with 1836.^^^ 
The population of the county in 1837 was 512.^^° 

This population was apparently not well distributed, 
thotigh all of the areas represented in the present 
townships excepting three seem to have received their 
first settlers by 1837.^^^ It is significant that in the 
next year, before the organization of the county, the 
legislature divided the township of Barry into four 
equal townships — Barry, Thornapple, Hastings, and 
Johnstown. ^^- But this cannot be taken to mean equal 
distribution of population. The largest center of popu- 
lation would seem by analogy with similar cases to be 



187. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 75-76. 

188. Prior to that time it had been attached for judicial pur- 

poses to St. Joseph and Kalamazoo counties— to the 
latter since 1830. The county was organized March 15, 
1839. Session Laws (1835-36), 78. 

189. March 23, 1836, an act was approved organizing the town- 

ship of Barry, embracing the entire county. Session 
Laws (1835-36), 78. 

190. Michigan Legislative Manual (1838), 70. 

191. These seem to be Barry, Hope and Baltimore. The two 

latter especially seem to have been originally handi- 
capped with hills, lakes, swamps and hesivy hardwood 
timber, and to have been somewhat aside from the 
beaten track of travel through Yankee Springs and 
Middleville, as well as away from the river. History of 
Barry County, 392, 435. 

192. Session Laws (1837-38), 81-82. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 453 

indicated by the retention of the old name of Barry 
for the southwestern township. ^^^ The northeastern 
township of Hastings probably had a small popula- 
tion, and the center of it appears to have been 
Hastings, as the first township meeting was directed 
to be held at the house of Slocum H. Bunker, who 
then lived there. ^^^ But in 1837, if reports are trust- 
worthy, there were on the immediate site of the future 
county seat only Mr. Bunker's family and the men 
building the sawmill. -^^^ Blois reports in the year fol- 
lowing that "it contains a few families, and is improv- 
Ij^g "196 'pi^g township of Thornapple contained two of 
the earliest settled points in the county, in its southern 
part the site of Yankee Springs, and at the north on 
the river below Hastings, the site of Middleville.^" 



193. The stage of development is indicated by the legislative 

direction for the township of Barry in 1836, that the 
first township meeting should be held at a private house, 
that of Nicholas Campbell; after the subdivision the 
meeting was directed to be held at the house of John 
Mills. Session Laws (1835-36), 78, and (1839), 82. 

194. Session Laws (1839), 81. 

195. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 112; XXXVIII, 646. The second set- 

tler, Willard Hays, from Mass., a brother of a member 
of the Hastings Company, is said to have arrived in 
1837. History of Barry County, 367. 

196. Intending settlers who consulted Blois' Gazetteer, in 1838, 

might have read in addition: "Hastings, a village on 
the Thornapple River, near the center of the county of 
Barry, is said to be beautifully situated, possessing ex- 
cellent hydraiilic power, which is improved to some 
extent"; p. 299. vSee Clark's Gazetteer (1863), 83, for a 
list of settlers in the county in 1836. 

197. The name of this place, which seems to have been a favorite 

spot with the Indians, is said to have been derived from 
its position half way between Kalamazoo and Grand 



454 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The line of the Indian trail through these points and 
the western tier of townships from Kalamazoo and 
Battle Creek to Ionia and Grand Rapids, probably 
formed the axis of settlement in the county at that 
date. A writer who seems to be familiar with the 
pioneer records of the county reports that many New 
York settlers came in 1837 to the southeastern part of 
the county into what became Johnstown Township.^ ^^ 
The settlement of the county seems to have begun 
practically with the great wave of speculation in the 
lands of Michigan that came in full force in 1836. In 
that year there was made one of the most widely 
known of the early settlements of Michigan in the 
openings near cool springs of water at a junction of 
Indian trails in the western part of the county. -^^^ 
William Lewis, better known as "Yankee Lewis," a 
native of Weathersfield in western New York, chose 
the site for an inn, which proved to give some promise 



197. Con. Rapids. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 654. Land ap- 

pears to have been purchased on this site by a New 
York settler as early as 1834, who is said to have brought 
his family there in the following year. History of Barry 
County, 486. It appears to be a slightly older settle- 
ment than either Yankee Springs or Hastings. 

198. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 221. William P. Bristol is re- 

ported to have been the most prominent of these. It 
was at his house that the first township meeting in 
Johnstown Township (1839) was directed to be held. 
Session Laws (1839), 82. 

199. This place for some reason became known as "Yankee 

Springs." One story relates that the name was carved 
on the bark of a tree by some passers-by who happened 
to eat their lunch there, all from New England — "all 
Yankees, ' ' as one remarked. History of Barry County, Z3 . 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 455 

early to this part of the county^through the charm of 
Lewis' hospitahty as a landlord. 2°*^ It is significant 
that Lewis had been in Indiana and IlHnois in 1835 
and that so shrewd a "Yankee" could see in Chicago 
nothing but a "dirty French and Indian trading post," 
as he is quoted to have characterized it. The site of 
his famous hostelry never became even a considerable 
village. 

In the year 1836 beginnings were made at Hastings'-^''^ 
by a company organized for the purpose of exploiting 
the water power and neighboring timber lands through 
the fostering of a county-seat village. The county 
seat appears to have been already located there but 
the site was yet without settlers in 1836.-''^ It is said 
that the price of $3,000 was paid for the plat covering 
the village site, which became known as the "Barry 



200. His popularity and ability was long an influence in this 

section, making him a representative of Barry County 
in the legislature of 1846. Michigan Biographies, 415. 
It is not improbable that he drew to the county many 
settlers from the region of his native place. The "Man- 
sion House" which was ultimately a collection of six log 
cabins, all on the ground, appears to be well known to 
old pioneers of the county as "Lewis' six story building." 
The extent of these accommodations illustrates the 
amount of travel on this route. History of Barry County, 
515. 

201. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 303. 

202. The name is derived from Eurotas P. Hastings, said to have 

been a native of Washington, Litchfield County, Con- 
necticut. He was then a resident of Detroit, and was 
connected with the Bank of Michigan as president in 
the period of "wild-cat banking." History of Barry 
County, 367; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 645, note 3. 
Michigan Biographies gives New York as the place of 
his birth (p. 330). 



456 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

County Seat Purchase. "^°^ The three purchasers ap- 
pear to have organized subsequently as the "Hastings 
Company" to found the vihage, and it seems probable 
that Eurotas P. Hastings, as president of the Bank of 
Michigan, had something to do with financing the 
project. The first improvement was a sawmill, 
erected by this company on a .small branch of the 
Thornapple River at that place. The first frame house 
is said to have been built in 1838 from lumber sawed 
there. Apparently there was early a close connec- 
tion between Hastings, Marshall, Battle Creek and 
Kalamazoo, largely through the members of this com- 
pany. The purchasers of the site of Hastings are said 
to have been residents of Marshall ;"°^ which accords 
with the enterprize of Marshall men we have seen in 
the starting of the mill and village at Bellevue in 
Eaton Coimty. The first settlers of Hastings seem to 
have gotten their mail by way of Gull Prairie in Kala- 
mazoo County. ^°° Marshall and Battle Creek were for 
some time the nearest considerable points of supply. 

The same impulse to land and town-site speculation 
that started the settlement of Barry County made the 
first important impression upon the forested lands of 
Ingham. The settlement of that county, however, was 
destined to be very slow for a decade after receiving 
its first settlers. Before 1835 there were a few settlers 
on the extreme edges of what later became the town- 



203. History of Barry County, 367; Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 

645. 

204. History oj Barry County, 367. 

205. Ihid., 373. Blois mentions a postofifice at Hastings. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 457 

ships of Stockbridge, Onondaga and Williamstown.^"® 
Yet it is recorded that in 1845, on the occasion of a 
Fourth of July celebration on the site of Lansing, the 
available white men were so few that they had to 
enlist the aid of the Indians to raise the Hberty pole.^"^ 
The first activity on the site of what was to become 
the future capital of the State was the platting of a 
''city" which afterwards was sold for taxes. As sug- 
gested, this was a speculative venture, and it was 
similar to that which was made at Hastings in that 
its purpose was to improve the water power and 
through the mill and the founding of a city, to exploit 
the neighboring timber and land.^'^^ It was one of 
many similar experiments in city building in this 
period, but the natural advantages which the site 
possessed raised it above the class to which Port 
Sheldon belonged. Its connection with the site of the 
later Lansing, together with its signal failure, has 
caused it to be frequently cited as an example of the 
' 'paper city. ' ' One signal advantage it lacked which the 
project of the Hastings Company had, a close touch 
with open country and with older settlements and 
traveled highways ; this is illustrated by a comment of 
Silas Beebe, a settler of Stockbridge Township in 1838 
who is quoted as saying of the upper part of the county 
that "things looked too new and the project too 



206. Mich. Hist. Colls., XVIII, 448; History of Ingham and 

Eaton Counties, 292, 297, 334. 

207. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXVI, 642. 

208. Detroit Daily Free Press, May 11, 1836; Cowles, The Past 

and Present of Lansing and Ingham County, 54, 113; 
History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 122. 



458 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

far off to suit my view."^°^ The desire to be near a 
traveled highway appears in 1;he report that he settled 
in Stockbridge in the belief that the Michigan Central 
Railroad would pass there. It was not until 1837 that 
"Biddle City"^^*^ received its first settler, and few came 
thereafter. ^^^ 

The only prospective village site in Ingham County 
in this period was that of Mason near the center of the 
county. ^^^ This was another mill-site and town-site 
speculation, and was operated by a firm at Monroe. ^^^ 
The mill rather than the village, however, seems there 
to have been of first concern. In 1836 an agent of 
the company began building the mill and clearing the 
land; the following year a member of the company 
became a permanent settler on the site.^^^ From limi- 
ber cut at this first sawmill in the county a frame 

209. Mick. Hist. Colls., I, 190, 192. 

210. The place is said to have been named for Major John 

Biddle of Detroit. It was laid out with forty-eight 
blocks and seventeen fractional ones. There was a 
"public square," a "Church square," an "academy 
square," and the principal streets bore high-sounding 
names. Quite a nimiber of lots appear to have been 
sold. There is said to be a plat of the city in Liber 6, 
Deed Records, in the Register of Deeds' office at Mason. 
History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 122. 

211. This settler is said to have been a German tailor who met 

some of the proprietors of "Biddle City" at Jackson. 
History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 192. 

212. Named for Stevens T. Mason, the first governor of Mich- 

igan. 

213. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 203, 205. 

214. Ibid., 203. This member of the firm was Ephraim B. 

Danforth, originally from Orange County, New York, 
who afterwards became a State senator and a delegate 
to the Constitutional Convention of 1850. Michigan 
Biographies, 216. He named the village. 




GOVE]lNOR STEVENS T. MASOX 

(Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXV, p. 240) 

From the oil DaintiiiK in tlie State Capitol, svipposed to have been done by an EnRlish artist, 
AUin Sra th Xut S^5 --\Iason became Act ins-Governor of the Territory on the resigna- 
tion of Lewis Cass in 1S31. BeiiiK then only twenty years old he became known as the 
••Bov Go?ernor'' but he proved to be a man in thou^-hl and a.-tion. He was elected first 
governor of the State and was the dominant figure of the transitional period. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 459 

schoolhouse was built in 1837, where school is said 
to have been held in the summer of that year with 
eight pupils. "^^ The village was not platted until 
1838. "^'^ In February of that year "a sawmill (frozen 
up), a few houses and surrounding forest is all it could 
boast of."^^^ Blois credits it with "a store, tavern, saw 
mill, and several buildings. "^^^ 

Ingham County had in 1837 three organized town- 
ships^^^ and a population of 822 people.^^" If the size 
of a township were not often deceptive it would appear 
that the greater number of settlers were in the ex- 
treme southeastern corner, in the township of Stock- 
bridge, which was at that early date but six miles 
square. "^^ The whole western half of the county con- 
taining the sites of Lansing and Mason made the one 
large township of Aurelius. 

New York appears to have been the source of more 
of the first settlers of this county than was the case 
with many other covmties in Michigan. One of the 
influential proprietors of "Biddle City" is said to have 
been a cousin of ex-Governor Horatio Seymour, of 
Utica, and at the time of the purchase, president of a 

215. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 211. 

216. Ibid., 205. 

217. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 190. 

218. Blois, Gazetteer, 222; Cowles' Lansing and Ingham County, 

p. 34, mentions Vandercook's Past and Present Life of 
Mason. 

219. Session Laws (1835-1836), 79, and (1837), 35, 41. 

220. Mich. Legislative Manual (1838), 71. 

221. The area of Stockbridge was that of a surveyed township 

from its organization in 1836, when it could have had 
but a small popiilation. It was obviously not necessary 
to make it larger, since only the untenanted forest ex- 
tended about it. Session Laws (1835-36), 79. 



460 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

bank at Rochester. ^^^ The representative of the Mon- 
roe Company who became the first promoter of Mason 
seems to have come from Orange County, New York,^^^ 
The township of Lansing is beheved to have been 
named for the Lansing in what was then Tompson 
County, New York.^^"* 

CHnton County, which lay at the north on the out- 
skirts of the Grand and Saginaw Valleys had about 
half as many settlers in 1837 as either of the counties 
immediately west of it.^^^ Either of the counties south 
of it had a population considerably more than one-half 
larger. This population was distributed in two 
equal townships whose longer axes extended north and 
south,-" but the lines of natural association of settle- 
ments apparently did not extend in that direction ; they 
extended east and west — at the south, along the Look- 
ingglass River and at the north, on the Maple River. 
In the interior between these two lines there does not 
seem to have been many settlers until very much 
later than 1837.^^^ There had been a goodly amount 

222. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, 122. 

223. Michigan Biographies, 216. 

224. Cowles, Lansing and Ingham County, 113, 115. For a list 

of the first settlers of the townships of the county see 
Mich. Hist. Colls., VI, 283; XII, 393; XVII, 633; XXVI, 
643-644. 

225. Shiawassee, population 1,184 
Ionia, " 1,028 
Eaton, " 913 
Ingham, " 822 
Clinton, " 529 

227. Session Laws (1837), 140. The townships were Dewitt and 

Watertown. 

228. It is significant that the next subdivision took place in the 

western half of the county, and in a way to separate the 
northern from the southern settlements. Session Laws 
(1837-38), 83. 



Michigan Legislative Man- 
ual (1838), 75-76. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 461 

of land purchased, as is shown by the Tract Book; 
but the bulk of these purchases appear to have been 
for speculation. The county appears to have been gen- 
erally less settled than many other counties where the 
same quantity of public land was sold. Blois ^^^ men- 
tions no villages in the county. There appear, how- 
ever, to have been a number of nuclei of settlement 
forming in 1837 which were to develop village life, 
and there were a number of "paper towns" at promis- 
ing power sites on the Lookingglass and Maple rivers, 
principally at Dewitt in the south and in what was 
to become Duplain Township in the northeast. 

Speculative enterprizes in the county began on a 
large scale in 1836. Land was first bought in the 
south along both sides of the Lookingglass River. A 
specially favored spot on this river was at its jimction 
with Prairie River, crossed by an Indian trail leading 
from Pontiac to the lower Grand River, which it was 
thought might develop into a highway of trade and 
travel. The landscape is said to have possessed great 
beauty and the soil and timber to have been excellent. 
Water power in abundance was at hand to develop 
these resources. In 1836 a cluster of villages began 
there, platted mainly by New York parties — as the 
names would suggest (Dewitt, Middletown, New Al- 
bany) — and the usual means were adopted to attract 
settlers; among others the streets were named from 
principal eastern cities. Notwithstanding the promis- 
ing outlook the financial crisis presently reduced these 
embryo villages all to the same plane ; a few years later 

229. Gazetteer, 218. 



462 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the sites were sold by the State for unpaid taxes. ^^" 
A little further down the river, at Wacousta, an ex- 
periment of a similar character but less extensive was 
tried by a joint stock company in 1837. A sawmill 
and gristmill were built, and a store was opened. -^^ 
Though these village projects were failures, the per- 
manent improvements made in mills and bmldings, as 
well as the attraction of settlers by the seeming pres- 
ence of capital and enterprize, were of great value, 
giving these lands a start toward agricultural settle- 
ment. 

Speculation was not confined to these favored places, 
but spread widely over the country. In Bengal Town- 
ship, a type of the heavily wooded township of the 
interior — of which its first settler is quoted as saying 
that from 1837 to 1850 it was considered the most 
worthless township in the county — a goodly number 
of acres are said to have been bought in 1836-37 on 
almost every section. ^^^ In many cases where the land 
was long held out of market awaiting the rise in prices 
which better times and the settlement of the county 
would naturally bring, these nonresident investments 
were a drag on the real interests of settlement. Very 
early the actual settlers sought the less desirable lands 
that were still left, rather than pay the high prices 



230. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 405. 

231. Ibid., 526. Illustrating the hmnorous side of land specula- 

tion at this period, the volume referred to (p. 424) gives 
an. interesting account of a race between a speculator 
and an agent of the Duplain colony to enter land at 
Kalamazoo. 

232. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 393-395. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 463 

demanded by speculators; such was the case, for ex- 
ample, with the first German colonists of Westphalia 
Township. Yet the Tract Books show that compara- 
tively few of the actual settlers of the county bought 
their lands originally from the Government. 

Another factor which deceived and discouraged many 
intending settlers, at least in some parts of the county, 
was the unfriendly attitude of the hunters and trap- 
pers, who looked upon agricultural settlement as hos- 
tile to their own interests. Among other means to 
discourage settlers they are said to have posted on 
trees numerous notices that no trespassing would be 
allowed in the premises, signing fictitious names for 
the proprietor. The natural conclusion would be that 
the land had all been piurchased there, and on inquir- 
ing in the neighborhood the impression would be con- 
firmed. Of one settler thus deceived it is related that 
he went to the land office, caused a diagram to be 
made out showing the actual condition of ownership 
of certain lands, and sold copies of it to inquiring 
settlers. He bought land, built a cabin and prepared 
to stay; but threatening notices and continued petty 
annoyances compelled him to sell out and leave. Such 
a neighborhood gained a reputation that led settlers 
to avoid it.^^^ 

There appear to have been a few actual settlers in 
the county as early as 1833-34 who made slight begin- 
nings before 1835 on the Lookingglass River in the 



233. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 386. This is 
told of the township of Bath. It cannot be said upon 
the evidence to have been a universal practice. 



464 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

present Dewitt and Eagle townships. These first set- 
tlers are said to have come originally from Litchfield, 
Connecticut and Shoreham, Vermont, but intermedi- 
ately from Washington and Genesee counties in New 
York, and from Oakland and Washtenaw coimties, 
Michigan. ^^"^ One of these settlements was made at 
the site opposite Dewitt, which is mentioned above as 
having been a chief point of speculative enterprize in 
1836-37. At this point in 1833 settled Captain David 
Scott, from Ann Arbor, after whom the place was long 
known as "Scott's." It became a helpful center of in- 
formation and inn accommodation for settlers passing 
on the ''Northern Route" to the Grand River coim- 
^j-y 235 j-f-g settlement was slow, but it was somewhat 
accelerated by the mills which were established by 
speculative enterprize on the river in 1837-38. The 
location of the county seat there in 1835 and the 
establishment of the township of Dewitt in that year 
shows it to have been considered a prospective center 
of early population in the county. ^^'^ It appears to 
have been situated on the route from both Pontiac 
and Howell to Grand Rapids, from the latter of which 

234; Mich. Hist. Colls., II, 483; V, 325, 328; XVII, 410. History 
of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 437. Lebanon 
Township at the extreme northeast is said to have re- 
ceived one settler from Washtenaw County in 1834, but 
not to have received its second settler until 1837. His- 
tory of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 471. 

235 History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 338, 406. 

236. Ibid., 342; Mich. Hist. Colls., XVII, 413; Session Laws 
(1835-36), 78. County buildings seem not to have been 
occupied until 1843. The shifting of the center of popu- 
lation with the increasing settlement of the county 
caused the removal of the county seat to St. Johns in 
1857. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 465 

places there is said to have been a weekly mail in 
1837.2" 

In that year of enterprise, 1836, a notable settle- 
ment took place in the northeastern comer of Clinton 
County somewhat similar to that made three years 
before at Ionia. It was somewhat larger, some twenty- 
five families, and it differed from the Ionia colony in 
having a formal organization. It was known in its 
Articles of Association as "The Rochester Colony," and 
in the particulars of association it had much in com- 
mon with the colony at Vermont ville. According to 
the account in the History of Shiawassee and Clinton 
Counties, the right to a controlling interest in the com- 
pany attached to one share of $125, $5 of which was 
to be paid down and the balance on demand, each 
member to receive eighty acres of farm land and one 
or more lots in the contemplated village. The lands 
were to be secured at Rochester by lot, but to insure 
their actual improvement no deed in fee simple was 
to be given until the subscriber had actually settled 
or insured his settlement on his land with his family, 
or in lieu of settlement had improved it to one-fourth 
of the cost. The remainder of the company's lands 
were to be sold at auction, and the proceeds were to 
be equitably divided. Eighteen months were to be 
allowed after the drawing either to settle or improve; 
failure to do one or the other forfeited the land to the 
company, to be sold at auction with certain provisions 

237. Mich. Hist. Colls., V, 329. Blois does not mention a settle- 
ment there. For the first settlers of the neighboring 
river townships of Eagle and Watertown, see Mich. Hist. 
Colls., V, 328; XIV, 622; XVII, 412. 
69 



466 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

in favor of ;the subscriber. Agents were chosen to 
locate the land and administer the company's financial 
affairs, but the agents were not to purchase any lands 
bordering on those of the company until after the 
company's purchase'had been completed and the agents 
had returned to Rochester. ^^^ 

Influences at Detroit led these agents to this region, 
where they are reported to have found all of the im- 
portant points taken "excepting one which lies on 
the Maple River." In the present Duplain Township 
they seem to have spent four days investigating and 
weighing the relative advantages of the various places 
they had visited, ^^^ and their report shows that water 
power, good soil, timber, and the prospect of a canal 
near by weighed most in favor of that site. The den- 
sity of the forest was mentioned as somewhat of a 
drawback. The agents laid much stress on the pro- 
posed State project of a canal to connect the Maple 
and Shiawassee rivers, "which, if that takes place," 
they are quoted as saying, "will cause a great drift of 
business through this section of the country, as it will 
save something like one thousand miles of water car- 
riage around the Lakes. "^'*° The settlement was made 
in 1836, but is not mentioned by Blois. 

Another prominent power site early covered by pur- 

238. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, 423; Mich. Hist. 

Colls., V, 329. _ 

239. They had been directed to go first to the neighborhood of 

the Wabash and Erie Canal and the lower Maumee 
River in Ohio, thence to Fort Wayne and the northern 
counties of Indiana, thence to Michigan along the Grand 
River. They are said to have spent a month before their 
return to Rochester. 

240. Mich, Hist. Colls., V, 331. 



THE GRAND RIVER REGION 467 

chase from the Government was that at the present 
Maple Rapids. As early as 1832 this site was bought 
by George Campau who is said to have established a 
trading post there in the same year that his brother 
Louis estabhshed the one at Grand Rapids (1826).2« 
By 1837 the lands in this vicinity had been mainly 
taken up by speculators. ^^^ 

In 1836 a colony of German CathoHcs began to 
gather in the township of WestphaHa.243 This appears 
to have resulted from their failure to find stiitable 
lands on the lower Grand River whither they are said 
to have been directed by a Catholic priest whom they 
consulted on their arrival at Detroit; only land at 
speculators' prices seems to have been available there 
and they turned northward to lands of which they 
had heard while at Lyons. The sterHng character of 
these immigrants is evidenced by the early transfor- 
mation wrought in this township, which is said to 
have contained originally much swamp and to have 
been considered by speculators as not worth atten- 
tion. ^^^ 

241. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, ZZ^, 446. 

242. Ihid., 444-446. 

243. Ihid., 533, 535. This vokime reports the township aS 

populated (1880) almost exclusively by German Catho- 
lics. The original colony is said to have purchased 
almost a section of contiguous land. 

244. The township was organized with the area of a surveyed 

township in 1839. Session Laws (1839), 21. 



CHAPTER IX 

Sources and Character of Population 

TT is almost a truism that the habits and ideals of a 
new country are determined largely by the environ- 
ment from which the people come. Their inheritance 
— social, economic, political, religious — is transplanted 
with them and forms the matrix from which their 
life in the new environment is to grow, and in turn 
the new environment, as the medium through which 
their life seeks to express itself, tends to modify the 
inheritance. The study of settlement finds a large 
part of its value in the aid it can give to explain how 
the life of a people has come to be what it is, and 
hence the question of the sources of population and 
of their relative contributions to different areas is one 
of its important problems. 

In this respect a typical Michigan county is Wash- 
tenaw.^ The chief areas from which settlers came 



1 . There are two reasons for basing this chapter upon a study 
of the population of Washtenaw County; first, the settle- 
ment areas treated in the preceding chapters are too 
large to admit within the scope of this study either of 
the necessary detail or of some degree of control of the 
materials. Data for other Michigan coimties have been 
given to some extent in connection with chapters deal- 
ing with the several settlement areas, and the results 
substantially agree with those here obtained. Again, 
Washtenaw is a typical county in a typical group of 
coimties. In siurface, soil, drainage, timber, water- 
power, ease of communication and proximity to adequate 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 469 

immediately to this county is suggested by the rela- 
tive number of original land purchasers who registered 
from different places. Five hundred and eighteen 
patents give places of registration in the following 
proportions : 

New England 25 

New York 228 

Other Middle Atlantic states 5 

Southern states 

Western states 3 

'Foreign 4 

Washtenaw County, Michigan 212 

Other Michigan counties 41 

Total 518 



1. Con. markets and supply depots it closely resembles Oakland 
and Lenawee counties, and this area appears to be fairly 
representative in population, if we except the southwestern 
counties where there was a much larger proportion of 
settlers from states outside of New York and New Eng- 
land. The chief limitation upon results is imposed by 
the extent, accessibility and nature of the materials. It 
hardly needs saying that satisfying results can be ob- 
tained only as they are obtained by the census bureau, 
by counting individuals, and one may well ask what is 
to be understood by a source of population for the indi- 
vidual. It was exceptional for a settler to emigrate 
directly from his place of birth to Michigan. He was 
much more likely to have a number of intermediate stop- 
ping places; for example, he might be bom in England, 
migrate with his parents to Connecticut, be educated 
in Verrriont, engage in business in New York, and then 
spend some years on the frontier in Ohio and perhaps 
return to New York for some years before settling finally 
in Michigan. It is pertinent to ask, Where did he "come 
from" and to which environment was he most indebted 
for his qualities and ideals? The relative efficiency of 



470 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

By far the largest ntimber of New York purchasers 
registered, from Genesee, Monroe, Ontario and Seneca 
counties; Cayuga, Livingston, Steuben and Wayne 
counties made up the next largest number; these eight 
counties, which made a fairly compact area, were in 
the northern and central parts of western New York. 

1. Con. different environments in these respects is doubtful, and 
it might vary with individuals. The relative lengths 
and dates of sojourn would introduce variations that 
could hardly be calculated. The influence of birthplace 
in the case above given would probably be slight, but 
if the birthplace were Connecticut, and especially if 
there were a background of eminent colonial antecedents 
and family traditions, its influence would tend to be 
considerable. It would matter much if the sojourn were 
made, say, at Albany between the ages of fifteen and 
twenty-five in the period of the canal projects. Un- 
doubtedly the web of influences would be very difficult 
for even the person concerned to disentangle. 

The factors chosen here are birthplace and the place 
of residence at the time of making the first purchase of 
land in the county. This selection is as likely to prove 
rational as another, and it is practicable. Some com- 
pensation is sought by individualizing representative 
citizenship. The material is definite and easily access- 
sible, consisting of land patents and biographical sketches. 
The originals of the United States land patents issued to 
the first purchasers of land in the county are on file at 
Washington. There are duplicates of about one-half of 
them in the Register of Deeds' office in Ann Arbor, and 
these are used here. Of those consulted, there were five 
hundred and eighteen that were useful for the present 
purpose, which were issued between 1824 and 1839. Of 
these buyers two hundred and fifty-three registered 
from Michigan, reducing the number on which to cal- 
culate outside sources to two hundred and sixty-five. 
This number however ought to be fairly representative 
of the early period. Undoubtedly some of these pur- 
chasers were not actual settlers. Yet the size of single 
purchases does not in general indicate the professional 
speculator. Comparatively few of the names recur fre- 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 471 

Four-fifths of these patents (183) name coimties lying 
west of the meridian of Stony Point, which passes 
through the eastern end of Lake Ontario; and of these, 
seven-tenths (129) name these eight counties. Less 
than two-fifths of the whole number (89) mention 
counties bordering on Lake Erie and Pennsylvania, and 
purchasers were fewest in the latter. In both western 
and eastern New York they were most numerous in 
the area which was influenced directly by the Erie 
Canal. ^ 



1. Con. quently in other United States patents of the period, 

and of such as do recur often the second registration is 
usually from Washtenaw County, very probably indicat- 
ing settlement there. Early local deeds of sale bearing 
these names are almost uniformly from persons giving 
Washtenaw Comity as their place of residence. The 
material used for determining birthplaces is taken almost 
entirely from the biographical sketches in the back of 
the History of Washtenaw County. If compromises are 
sometimes permissible when the ideal is unattainable, 
clearly one must be made here. It would be quite in- 
expedient to try to check up this material except by 
sketches of a similar nature, as for example those in the 
volumes of the Mich. Hist. Colls., and it is not always 
certain that these are independent sources. A fair num- 
ber of test cases have given results entirely favorable to 
sketches in the History of Washtenaw County. 

2. Counties in western New York contributing: 

48-50 — a Cayuga 12 59-68 — a Onondaga. ... 7 

35-48 Chautauqua . . 3 40-43— b Ontario 19 

36-62— b Erie 7 21-25— b Seneca 22 

52-60— b Genesee 24 34-46 Steuben 11 

28-35— b Livingston. ... 13 28-21 Tioga 2 

50-65— a Monroe 20 37-38 Tompkins 3 

18-31— a Niagara 7 34-42— a Wayne 18 

19.44— a Orieans 6 19-20— b Yates 8 

Counties in eastern New York contributing : 

37-41 Chenango.... 1 27-44 Oswego 1 

40-43— c Columbia 2 51-50— b Otsego 3 



472 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

A glance at this data reveals a relation between the 
number of purchases made from a county and the rate 
and amount of the county's growth. On the whole it 
was from the counties of slow growth that the pur- 
chases were most niunerous, like Seneca. Though its 
population was small, growing in ten years from 
21,000 to 25,000, it gave next to the highest number of 
purchasers. The largest number was given by Gene- 
see County, which belonged to the group of slow 
growth but of large or medium population; notable 
examples of this group are Ontario and Wayne. An 



2. Cm. 51-52— c Dutchess. . . 


.. 4 


13-12- 


-c Putnam 


2 


30-30 — c Greene 


.. 2 


49-60- 


-be Renssalaer .... 


3 


36-37 — a Herkimer. . . 


.. 1 


39-41- 


-be Saratoga 


4 


49-61 — Jefferson. . . 


.. 1 


12-16 


Sullivan 


1 


39-40— a Madison.... 


.. 5 


37-46- 


-c Ulster 


1 


71-85— a Oneida 


.. 6 


36-49- 


-c Westchester. . . 


1 


45-51 — c Orange 


.. 3 


31 - 


— c New York City 


4 



a — Counties crossed by the Erie Canal, 
b — Counties within the Canal's immediate sphere of influ- 
ence. 
c — Hudson River counties. 

The population for 1830 and 1840 appears at the left 
of the counties; the unit is 1000. The number of pur- 
chases appears at the right. Comparisons must take 
account of relative density; relative niimerical strength 
may deceive, owing to the varying size of the counties. 
Of course the counties as they then existed are not the 
present counties, and allowance must also be made for 
changes in county boundaries between 1830 and 1840. 
See plates 5, 6, 7, 8 of the United States Statistical Atlas, 
1900. Plate 8 shows a considerable area on the Pennsyl- 
vania border that was still sparsely populated in 1850. 
For population in 1830 and 1840 see United States Census 
(1830), 36-47, 50-53 and Ibid., (1840), 110, 123. Specific 
references to the patents in the Libers are for reasons of 
expediency omitted. 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 473 

apparent exception was Monroe County, just west of 
Wayne; it had a large population but its growth was 
comparatively rapid; it ranked third. The small num- 
ber of purchases from counties of small population and 
rapid growth is seen in Orleans and Niagara counties 
directly west of Wayne and Monroe, which had quite 
as good soil and location; the same may be said in 
large measure of Erie and Chautauqua. In these four 
counties, still in the pioneer stage, land was plentiful 
and there was no need of purchasing elsewhere. 

Almost all of the New York purchasers registered 
from Canal or Hudson River counties. There occurs 
one striking gap in the former group, in the area 
covered by southern Herkimer, Fulton, Montgomery, 
Schenectady and Albany counties ; all of these appear 
in the United States census of 1830 and of 1840 with 
a fair population.^ 

Outside of New York^ the greatest number of patents 

3. Excepting Ftilton County, in 1830, Plates 6 and 7, United 

States Statistical Atlas, 1900, show the density of popula- 
tion to have been comparatively small in the area east 
of Utica, which agrees with this in part. 

4. (Liber and page) 
Maine 31.787. 

New Hampshire. . . . D.413-38.593. 

Vermont D.386-E.292-I.275-31.800. 

Massachusetts D.263-E.174-F.118-L.376-M.265-M. 

337-N.23-X.90-X.293-39.113. 

Rhode Island K.18-Q.428-32.783. 

Connecticut B.375-M.356-U.25-U.572-28.561. 

Pennsylvania H.391-M.350-N.334. 

Virginia F.351. 

New Jersey W.159. 

Ohio P.300-S.139-U.282. 

Upper Canada E.170-M.376. 

England L.479. 

Scotland 39.440. 



474 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

registered from any one State was ten from Massa- 
chusetts. This was two-thirds of all that were regis- 
tered from New England, and these purchases were 
made mainly in the 20's, by persons from Berkshire, 
Worcester and Franklin counties, and from Boston. 

Connecticut and Vermont rank next among the New 
England States. Four purchasers registered from Cale- 
donia, Addison and Franklin counties, Vermont; and 
five from Connecticut, from the counties of Litchfield 
and New London, and from the city of New Haven. 
From Rhode Island one registered from Providence, 
one from Newport, and one from Washington County. 

Pennsylvania and Ohio were next, furnishing each 
three registrations, comparatively late; the Pennsyl- 
vanians were from Bradford and Dauphin counties, the 
Ohioans from the counties of Huron and Sandusky. 

From each of the remaining sources Maine, New 
Hampshire, Virginia, New Jersey, Upper Canada, Eng- 
land and Scotland there were registered but one or 
two purchasers. 

Two hundred and twelve persons registered from 
Washtenaw County, Michigan. Outside this county 
the largest number of registrations was from Wayne 
Coimty (24), over one-half of which were from De- 



4. Con. The earliest Libers use the alphabet, and are continued 
numerically beginning with 27. The above are sample 
references (those for New England, etc.). 

A thousand patents which might be obtained by fol- 
lowing the later registrations would perhaps vary these 
proportions somewhat, by including the later pur- 
chases. As each patent gives also the location, date, 
and extent of the particular purchase, these items could 
be made to reveal the distribution of the purchases in 
different periods over the coimty. 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 475 

troit. Lenawee County ranked next with nine. Oak- 
land, Monroe, Livingston and Jackson counties fur- 
nished together eight purchasers.^ 

Turning now to the settlers: of 965 adult settlers 
who came to Washtenaw County between 1815 and 
1850, less than a third (277) were of foreign birth; of 
these Ireland, England and Germany furnished the 
greater number, respectively 91, 85, and 82. Scotland 
sent 10, Canada 7 and Switzerland 2. 

The native American settlers were born chiefly in 
New York and New England. Of these New York 
furnished alone more than one-half (374), which was 
more than a third of the whole number. From the 
other Middle Atlantic states came 89 ; 40 of them from 
Pennsylvania, 44 from New Jersey and 5 from Virginia. 
The absence of birthplaces in Delaware, Maryland and 
the western and southern states is notable. 

New England furnished considerably less than a 
third of the total (224). Of these the least number 
came from Maine (2), while Rhode Island furnished 5 
and New Hampshire 12. The near equality of rep- 
resentation from the three largest contributors is note- 
worthy — Massachusetts 70, Vermont 69, Connecticut 
66.6 



Oakland, 3. 

Monroe, 3. 

Livingston, 1. 

Jackson, 1. 

Total outside Washtenaw County in State, 41. 

Total in State, 253. 

Maine 2 England 85 

New Hampshire 12 Ireland 91 

Vermont 69 Scotland 10 

Massachusetts 70 Germany 82 



476 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

To summarize briefly: the Irish were the leading 
foreign element, with the English and the Germans 
close rivals. Scotch and Canadians were few. New 
York led in the native element, with New England 
close. The foreign, New York, New England and 
other elements contributed in about the proportions of 
27, 37, 21 and 8. Of the New England sources, Maine, 
New Hampshire and Rhode Island contributed few; 
Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut contributed 
about equally and in considerable nrunbers. Pennsyl- 
vania and New Jersey showed less, and in about equal 
proportions. A few settlers were from Virginia. 

Comparing the results obtained from the biographi- 
cal sketches and the patents, large and general like- 
nesses appear. In each group the New York element 
was very much larger than that from any other source, 
four times greater in the nativities and twenty-two 
times greater in the places of first land purchases. 
The New England, foreign, and Middle Atlantic con- 
tributions stood next, while in both groups the western 
and southern states were of but slight importance. 

In each group, New England furnished a large per- 
cent of the population, largest from Massachusetts. 
Vermont and Connecticut ranked as contributors 



6. Con. Rhode Island 5 Switzerland 2 

Connecticut 66 New England 224 

New York 374 New York 374 

Pennsylvania 40 Foreign 277 

New Jersey 44 Other Middle Atlantic 

Virginia 5 states 89 

Ohio Western states 

Canada 7 

Southern states 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 477 

second and third; while Maine, New Hampshire and 
Rhode Island contributed the least number. 

In the Middle Atlantic states there were represented 
the same contributors, in addition to New York; 
namely, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia— the 
latter being subordinate in each group. Neither group 
included southern states; and it was the same with 
western states, excepting a few patents to Ohioans. 

The most marked differences between the two groups 
appear in the foreign element. The differences in na- 
tive population appear especially in the percentages, 
differences which in their larger aspects would not be 
materially affected if the birth figures for the foreign 
elements were omitted. The nativities show a very 
much higher percent of New Englanders than do the 
nativities. The former statement is true also for the 
other Middle Atlantic states. This is probably indica- 
tive for the masses of what is so frequently found true 
in particular families of old settlers in the county, 
that the immigration to the county from New York 
was largely by persons born in other states who in the 
earlier days had settled in New York.^ 

An interesting confirmation of the large New York 
and New England elements in Michigan's population 
is obtained by noting some of the county's prominent 
pubHc men of the period — although quite the reverse 

^- Nativity Patent 

New England 24 percent. 9 percent. 

New York Z^ " 86 

Foreign 29 " 2 

Other Middle Atlantic states. . . 9 " 2 

Western states " 1 

Southern states " 



478 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of the proportions is found. In these the percentage 
of New York nativities is greater than that for New 
England. Forty-eight percent of those members of 
the legislature^ whose nativities are given were born 
in New York, thirty-seven percent in New England, 
thirteen percent in the Middle Atlantic states outside 
of New York, and two percent in New England. The 
New England contributions were made mainly from 
Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and in 
nearly equal numbers. The same Middle Atlantic 
states outside of New York were represented; namely, 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the former 
leading. Maine and Rhode Island did not contribute. 
The only foreign element was one Englishman. 

Examining the counties in which were born the 
members of the Michigan Legislature from 1835 to 
1850: one-half of the members who were born in 
New York came from the western part of that State, 
Ontario and Cayuga counties alone furnishing seven 
of these, the former four, the latter three; Wayne and 
Niagara counties furnished each one. Excepting Niag- 
ara, not any of the extreme western and southwestern 
areas contributed. Of the southern and southeastern 
counties only Chenango, Broome and Orange counties 
were represented — each sent one. The remaining New 

8. The volume of Michigan Biographies (1888), compiled under 
the auspices of the State of Michigan, gives sketches of 
forty-six members from Washtenaw County in the Ter- 
ritorial and State legislatiires between 1835 and 1850. 
On checking these up from the legislative manuals, the 
volumes of the Mich. Hist. Colls., Representative Men, the 
histories of the county and other sources, scarcely an 
error was found. The figures are based upon the ma- 
terial in Michigan Biographies. 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 479 

York members came from central and eastern counties; 
one each from Lewis, Madison, Otsego and Schoharie 
counties, and three from east of the Hudson River; two 
of these were bom in Colimibia Coimty, and the third 
in Renssalaer County.^ 

9. Members of Territorial and State legislatures from Wash- 
tenaw Coimty from 1835-59. References are to Mich- 
igan Biographies, with page and the initials of members. 

Coimties in western New York contributing : nativities — 

Cayuga (3)— N.S.583-B.W.W.662-E.L.F.279. 

Livingston.. . (1)— W.F.268. 

Niagara (1)— J.M.E.246. 

Ontario (4)— W.B.139-J.R.550-D.P.524-H.T.W.666. 

Wayne (1)— O.W.687. 

Counties in eastern New York contributing — 
Broome (1)— H.C.186. 

(1)— T.W.712. 

(2)— A.P.533-W.S.C.155. 

(1)— S.L.H.316. 
.(1)— J.G.L.413. 

(1)— R.E.M.478. 

(1)— S.D.224. 
.(1)— S.D.233. 

(1)-J.L.423. 



Chenango . 
Columbia . 

Lewis 

Madison. . 
Otsego. . . . 
Orange .... 
Renssalaer. 
Schoharie. . 



Two members, not known what counties N.R.R.541-J.W.H. 

343. 
Members of the State legislature 1850-84 who settled in 

Washtenaw County before 1850. 

Counties in western New York contributing : nativities^ 
Alleghany... (1)—G.P.536. 
Cayuga (4)— C.J.383-J.D.W.698-W.B.65-C.S.G. 

309. 

Erie (1)— D.P.522. 

Genesee (2)— O.C.176-G.P.S.572. 

Livingston. . . (2)'— C.W.684-B.C.157. 

Onondaga. . .(3)— E.LB.121-J.D.C.199-A.H.C.201. 

Ontario (8)— J.H.B.84-T.D.L.406-A.F.K.399-D.A. 

W. 716-P.C.194-A.R.560-J.J.R.560- 

J.W.M.464. 



480 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

From New England, the Connecticut members were 
natives of Sharon and Litchfield^ "^ in Litchfield County, 
Norwich^^ in New London, Danbury^^ in Fairfield, Can- 
terbury^^ in Windham, and Sterling^'* in Tolland County . 
Massachusetts members came from the comparatively 
limited area of two counties, Berkshire and Norfolk. 
Sandisfield,^^ West Stockbridge,^'' Cheshire^^ and Great 
Barrington,^^ were nativities in the former; Wey- 
mouth, ^^ in Norfolk. Members of Vermont birth came 
from St. Johnsbury^° in Caledonia County, from 
Rupert ^^ in Bennington, from Rutland" in Rutland, 

9. C<m. Schuyler (1)— J.S.T.641. 

Seneca (1)— C.Y.721. 

Steuben (1)— L.J.W.684. 

Wayne (2)— L.K.H.341-F.W.C.184. 

Wyoming.. . . (1)— L.D.N.494. 
Yates (2)— L.C.213-N.W.676. 

Counties in eastern New York contributing — 
Cortland.... (1)—J.G.293. 

Fulton (1)— D.M.450. 

Oneida (1)— G.T.G.312. 

Otsego (1)— S.P.510. 

Renssalaer. . . (1)— E.B.W.669. 

Unknown C.S.586-I.R.555-O.H.342. 

10. O.K.388. 

11. A.G.290. 

12. A.W.696. 

13. J.K.396. 

14. H.H.318. 

15. O.P.513. 

16. G.S.602. 

17. N.P.525. 

18. G.S.575. 

19. M.P.531. 

20. A.C.208. 

21. O.R.556. 

22. A.M.463. 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER DF POPULATION 481 

and from Newfane-''^ in Windham; the birthplace of 
one other member the writer has_ been unable to ascer- 
tain with certainty.-^ New Hampshire contributed 
from Petersboro'-'^ in Hillsborough County. 

The first items in the Detroit Gazette that mention 
the sources of immigration to Michigan emphasize 
the "Genesee country" of western New York, especi- 
ally the coiinties of Monroe and Ontario, and the most 
frequent comparison made of Michigan lands is with 
those along the Genesee River. ^^ Says the Gazette of 
September 13, 1825, "The emigration is still principally 
from western (the richest) counties of New York. It 
appears that a knowledge of this country has not yet 
reached further east than the county of Onondaga." 
The same for January 16, 1827, estimates that nearly 
three-fourths of the immigration to Michigan is from 
New York and on March 6 expresses the belief that 
four-fifths of the new population desire to adopt the 
New York system of township government in prefer- 
ence to that of New England." 

23. M.K.391. 

24. W.A.B.135. 

25. W.M.473. 

26. Detroit Gazette, October 12, 182 1 ; June 7 and August 2, 1822. 

27. In an important contribution by W. V. Smith, entitled 

"The Puritan Blood of Michigan," Mich. Hist. Colls., 
XXXVIII, 355-61, it is pointed out that the practice of 
the courts in Michigan, from Justice Court to Supreme 
Court, is taken almost entirely from New York; that the 
first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan 
was a New Yorker; that the "Big Four" (Justices of the 
Supreme Court), James V. Campbell, T. M. Cooley, I. P. 
Christian cy and B. E. Graves were all New Yorkers; that 
the Michigan real estate law was also adopted from 
New York. 
61 



482 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

A more conservative estimate, made for 1837 and 
including the New England element, places the New 
Englanders and New Yorkers at about two-thirds of 
the total population. ^^ As early as 1822 the Gazette 
mentions Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and 
Ohio (in this order) along with New York as chief 
sources. ^^ Virginia also should be mentioned especially 
for the southwest, and men from that State were con- 
spicuous leaders in shaping the earliest laws of Michi- 
gan.^ ° If New York may be called the second New 
England, Michigan may justly claim to rank as the 
third. Owing to the great foreign immigrations to New 
England in later times, Michigan represents today more 
truly the blood and the ideals of the Puritans than does 
any one of the New England states. ^^ The foreign 
immigrants who came after 1848, finding Michigan 
already largely occupied, moved farther west to Wis- 
consin, Minnesota and Iowa. As a result of the early 
immigration from New York and New England, Mich- 
igan probably has a larger percent of original New 
England stock than has any other State in the Union.^^ 

The qualities, habits and ideals of Michigan settlers 
in this period were therefore essentially those of 
New York and New England. A new society 

28. Channing and Lansing, Story of the Great Lakes, 261 . See 

also Farmer, Hist. Detroit, I, 335. 

29. Detroit Gazette, June 7, 1822. 

30. Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 344; XIV, 285, Michigan Biographies, 

11 , 715. Southwestern Michigan drew also largely from 
the Carolinas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana. 

31. Mich. Hist. Colls., XXXVIII, 360. 

32. McLaughlin, History oj Higher Education in Michigan, 12; 

see also O. C. Thompson's opinion in Mich. Hist. Colls., 
I, 400; and United States Census, 1870, under Popula- 
tion. 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 483 

was to be formed in the wilderness by a group 
of hardy middle-class farmers, young, hopeful, 
ambitious, and inbued with the traditions of in- 
dividualism in church, state and society, cut 
loose from conservative forces, and set down in 
the midst of almost boundless natural resources. ^^ 
The settlers had those qualities which are most sig- 
nificant for ability to endure the severe and continued 
hardships of pioneer life. The great majority of them 
were young and had been schooled by the stress of 
hard times to suffer privations; they had a firm faith 
in the future grounded in a supreme self-confidence; 
they had that vivid imagination born of the presence 
of great resources that buoyed them up in many 
times of distress. Many of them had large families. 
The supreme desire to leave their famiHes a compe- 
tence is the burden of many a pioneer reminisence 
and was a powerful stimulus, and the leaders among 
them had thoughts for remoter posterity. 

The selective process of economic pressure in the 
East together with the Government's regulation of 
land sales, especially the repeal of the credit system, 
insured comparative economic equality. This meant 
comparative equality of opportunity, for in a society 
where every man could own a farm there was little 
chance for any marked separation into economic or 
social classes. This comparatively even chance and 
practical social equality tended to induce comparative 

33. Lanman, History of Michigan, 295-300; American Historical 
Review, XI, 304-327; Magazine of Western History, IV, 
389-393; Atlantic Monthly, LXXVIII, 291-293; LXLI, 
87-90. 



484 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

contentedness and satisfaction with life, even under 
the most trying ills — a bulwark of strength for a new 
commonwealth . 

Along with self-confidence there was a healthful 
self-assertiveness, the sum of those fighting qualities 
which sharp competition and the struggle with wild 
nature tended to enhance. The absence of the ac- 
customed aids fostered initiative and originality. The 
demands of primitive conditions encouraged versatility 
in both the individual and the community. In almost 
any community of these pioneer farmers there were 
men from various walks of life, men who were ready 
to turn the hand to the old occupations, but whom 
the comparative ease of supporting a family by farm- 
ing in Michigan had induced to abandon, at least 
temporarily, the old pursuits.'^"* 

Being mainly young people, naturally they lacked 
the conservative elements which usually characterize 
the older settled sections. They had the character- 
istic venturesomeness of youth and radicalism, well 
illustrated in the public improvement schemes of the 
early days.'^^ Their private enterprise is illustrated in 
the building of the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad not a 
half dozen years after the first successful road in Eng- 
land. ^'^ On the other hand, their impetuosity and im- 
patience of restraint were a fertile source of danger, 
as seen in the results of land speculation and the early 
banking laws. Filled with the traditions of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, removed from conservative 

34. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 191. 

35. Campbell, Outlines of the Political History of Michigan 

487-500. 

36. Mich. Hist. Colls., 1,231. 



<; ::: 




tiiliiiii' 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 485 

influences, and taking a new inspiration from the 
freedom of the wilderness, this new society had as its 
fundamental principle the exaltation of the individual. 
In striking contrast were the "volatile, reckless, ami- 
able" French-Canadians along the eastern shore waters, 
reared under a paternaHstic regime and reverencing the 
traditions of the French monarchy.'^' 

Notwithstanding this spirit of individual indepen- 
dence, these immigrants had a deep sense of social re- 
sponsibility. Unlike the hunter type of pioneer, char- 
acteristic of some parts of the southern states, these 
people were a sociable, home-loving people, fond of 
close neighbors. This was a social bond of great 
value; a clearing in a Michigan forest might become 
the nucleus of a village or city. Despite the sharp- 
ness of competition among the settlements there was a 
lively sympathy which made for coherence in the social 
body, while the tendency to take the large outlook 
kept them in touch with the world outside. It is said 
to have been a characteristic desire of the New Eng- 
lander at home to know "how things were going in 
other parts;" and now, in the Michigan forest, it was 
naturally emphasized by the desire to know what was 
going on "back home." In their thought national 
affairs loomed large, as is evident from the early Mich- 
gan newspapers, which often gave verbatim reports of 
the important speeches in Congress. 

The attitude of the early settlers toward political 
and governmental problems was intensely democratic. 
They were themselves men of small means, many of 
whom were not unfamiliar with the ills of debt. Their 



37. Lanman, Michigan, preface, vii. 



486 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

sympathies were naturally with the debtor class; im- 
prisonment for debt was abolished in Michigan about 
the close of this period, hastened doubtless by the 
experiences of land speculation and banking. ^^ The 
so-called "wild-cat banking" was an experience grow- 
ing naturally out of the popular demand for a "demo- 
cratic" extension of what was regarded as a special 
privilege. The democratic spirit found a typical gov- 
ernmental expression in the town meeting, which is 
said to have found in Michigan'^ ^ its first home in the 
West. 

On the other hand these settlers were strictly con- 
servative in their social, religious and educational in- 
heritances from the East, Their intensified individ- 
ualism tended in some respects to emphasize these; 
slavery, for example, was abhorrent to them.'*° The 
first State constitution prohibited slavery in much the 
same language as that used in the Ordinance of 1787."*^ 
Many settlers came in from the states on the south 
because of the greater security offered in Michigan 
against slavery. The people of the southern Michigan 
counties took a prominent part later in aiding the es- 
cape of fugitive slaves from the South."*- 

Essentially Puritan in spirit, the church and the 
school were to be found among the earliest institu- 
tions in every settlement. The presence of the Con- 
gregational Church was a pretty certain indication of 

38. Session Laws (1839), 76. 

39. Johns Hopkins University Studies, I, No. 5, p. 10. 

40. Farmer, History of Detroit, I, 345-348; Mich. Hist. Colls., 

VII, 523. 

41. Michigan Manual, (1837), 45, Art. II. 

42. Coolidge, History of Berrien County, 26. 



SOURCES AND CHARACTER OF POPULATION 4S7 

a New England settlement. A Baptist Church was 
likely to be at the center of a distinctively New York 
sett lenient. "^^ Church schools and colleges were inev- 
itable. Kalamazoo, Albion, Olivet, Hillsdale and other 
present-day Michigan colleges of the denominational 
type are the fruit of this spirit. Religious leaders, in- 
cluding men like Father Richard, were to be among 
the strongest educational and political forces of the 
common wealt'i. The first professors in the enbryonic 
university at Detroit were Father Richard and John 
Monteith, a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, 
the former being one of the early delegates to Con- 
gress. To the Reverend John D. Pierce, first State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, is due more than 
to any other one man the shaping of Michigan's early 
public school system. 

For the masses of the people, despite the advantages 
of church and school, which in truth in this period were 
meager, there was an almost irresistible tendency to 
revert to primitive conditions. Yet the domestic vir- 
tues, the strength of will and the hard common sense 
characteristic of the Yankee were qualities much more 
important to the young life of the community than 
the amenities of the East A New Yorker traveling 
through Michigan in 1833-34 says:^"* 'T found myself 
among the most intelligent population of the middle 
class (the bone and sinew of every community), I ever 
mixed with." On the moral side their sterling tradi- 

43. The central point among the first churches and schools in a 

community was a fair indication of the center of popula- 
tion. 

44. Hoffman, A Winter in the West, I, 152. 



488 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tions, the intensified individualism which placed a 
premium upon character in the individual, and the 
quick and generous recognition of personal merit, 
acted as a powerful uplift. 



CHAPTER X 
Conclusion 

n^HE years beginning with the organization of Michi- 
gan Territory (1805) mark the dawn of Michigan 
settlement by immigrants from the eastern states. Be- 
fore then practically the only white men in Michigan 
were the French-Canadians, who occupied Detroit and 
the shore lands above and below that point — ^prin- 
cipally the lands near the mouth of the Raisin, the 
Clinton and the St. Clair. There was no inland settle- 
ment, and there was no re alagricultural development, 
the fur trade being the chief dependence. Very few 
improvements came with the early American period. 
The hostile attitude of the Indians and the War of 
1812 eifectually checked any advance inland; for some 
years after the war there was scarcely a farm culti- 
vated by a white man ten miles from the Territorial 
boundary. 

The years from 1818 to 1823 may be taken as the 
first period of agricultural settlement in Michigan. In 
1818 came the first public land sales, the beginning of 
navigation on the Great Lakes and the opening of 
work on the Erie Canal. The impulse of the new 
forces thus set in motion brought the first important 
immigration from the eastern states, and by the fol- 
lowing year the Territory had population enough to 



490 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

send a delegate to Congress. There took place in 1818 
and 1820 two important exploring expeditions to the 
interior which were of great importance in counteract- 
ing the false reports that had been circulated about 
the poor quality of Michigan lands, the former result- 
ing in the immediate founding of the first inland vil- 
lage, at Pontiac. In 1819 and 1821 two Indian 
treaties opened to survey and settlement all of eastern 
Michigan, and the years 1821-23 saw the founding of 
two Indian missions — one in southwestern Michigan 
near Niles, destined to be an important nucleus of 
frontier settlement in that section, another at the site 
of Grand Rapids. By the latter year explorations had 
been made up the Raisin and the Huron river into 
Lenawee and Washtenaw counties, and up the Clin- 
ton. The general stir of the year 1823 is signalized 
also by the authorization of the second grade of Terri- 
torial government, offering to immigrants the induce- 
ment of a larger participation in the public affairs of 
the Territory. 

A second period extends from 1823 to 1829. The 
first strong impulse of the period came with the open- 
ing of the Erie Canal in 1825, which had an immediate 
effect on steam navigation of the Lakes. In the same 
year began the survey of the Chicago Road, which at 
once gave impetus to settlement along its route through 
Wayne, Washtenaw, Lenawee and the southern tier of 
counties. By 1826 inland village centers had been 
established at Pontiac, Tecimiseh, Adrian, Ann Arbor, 
Ypsilanti, Utica and Romeo. In 1827 the need of 
local government for the settlers was met by the 
organization of a large number of townships. The first 



■ " CONCLUSION 491 

important common school legislation was passed by 
the Territorial legislature in that year; indeed this was 
a prominent year in the government's recognition and 
aid of settlement. 

In 1829 began a period of greatly accelerated exten- 
sion of the frontier and of rapid filling in about the 
older settlements which continued until 1832. One of 
the most marked signs of the new impulse was the 
authorization and partial survey in 1829 of the Terri- 
torial Road through the Kalamazoo Valley. In the 
same year the so-called "Cabinet counties," named for 
President Jackson and the members of his Cabinet, 
were estabHshed in that region, and the first counties 
in southwestern Michigan were organized (Cass and 
St. Joseph). The year 1831 is specially memorable 
for the planting of many villages along both the Chi- 
cago Road and the Territorial Road, some of which 
were soon to become county seat villages and are today 
the principal cities of southwestern Michigan. It was 
also notable for the extensive land sales, which ex- 
ceeded those of any year prior to 1835. In 1830-31 
the first important settlements of the Saginaw Valley 
began to appear, at Grand Blanc, Flint, Lapeer and 
Saginaw; and in the former year the Territorial gov- 
ernment granted a charter for a railway into that 
region, the first railway charter granted within the 
area of the Old Northwest. 

The period of 1832-34 was one of intermittent 
growth. The first year stands forth prominently as a 
black-letter year. The fears excited by the Indian 
uprising under Black Hawk, and the epidemic of 
cholera, while not putting a stop to immigration, seri- 



492 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ously retarded it in all parts of the Territory. A 
degree of revival came with 1833. The most note- 
worthy events were the beginning of shipments of. 
grain and breadstuffs to eastern markets and the 
awakening of interest in the Grand River Valley; the 
Grand River Road was surveyed from Detroit to the 
mouth of the Grand River in that year; Ionia was 
founded, beginnings were made at Grand Haven and 
accelerated at Grand Rapids, and the first marked 
land speculations in western Michigan began. In 1834 
there was a revival of the cholera epidemic, with even 
greater severity, which in the eastern part of the Ter- 
ritory tended to deaden all activities. 

The period before 1835 was a period of preparation, 
the character and fulness of which are witnessed by 
the great transformations of the following years which 
ushered in statehood. These were the years of the 
great land speculations; before 1835 there were sold 
in Michigan a little over two million acres of land; 
sales leaped to nearly two million acres in the one 
year 1835, and nearly four million acres were sold in 
1836. This is an index to activities in all fields. Coun- 
ties and townships were rapidly organized in the re- 
moter parts of the Grand and Saginaw valleys, a State 
constitution was adopted. Congress was petitioned for 
admission to the Union, a State government was 
organized and an extensive scheme of internal im- 
provements was projected. But the financial crisis of 
1837 came like a sudden and severe frost in the grow- 
ing season. It brought universal disaster and' made 
the years immediately following a period of slow and 
painful recovery. 



CONCLUSION 493 

The early settlers of Michigan came principally from 
New York and New England. They were impelled on 
the one hand by economic changes which affected 
especially the cost of living in their old homes, and on 
the other they were invited by cheap and fertile Gov- 
ernment land where prosperity was promised by the 
mere rise of land values from the development of the 
new country. The Government helped them by pro- 
tecting the frontier, extinguishing the Indian land 
titles, surveying and selling the lands, aiding the 
building of roads, establishing post offices and provid- 
ing for local government. The obstacles which these 
settlers met and the conditions that helped their en- 
deavors, the checks and stimuli which influenced the 
amount and distribution of population in this period, 
seem worthy of repeating together. 

There were, first, those checks and stimuli which 
were due to physical environment. The surface of 
Michigan, in places level, slightly undulating, or roll- 
ing, rarely inconveniently hilly, with a, minimum of 
stone, swamp or sandy and rocky barrens, insured a 
plentiful and widely distributed water supply and 
made farming easier. Its soil was in general highly 
productive, durable and easy to cultivate. The wind- 
ing courses of large streams distributed excellent mill 
sites, forming as it were, axes of settlement. Springs 
of pure water were plentiful, due to the porosity of the 
soil and the impervious sub -strata of limestone and 
clay Springs of mineral water were common, having 
saline properties in the Saginaw region and elsewhere 
in the eastern counties. Various kinds of hard and 
soft timber suited to all kinds of manufacture were 



494 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

liberally distributed in varying density. In places, as 
on the clay soils of Monroe and Wayne counties, the 
density of heavy timber was a serious obstacle to set- 
tlers; but adjacent to the heavily timbered areas there 
was a variety of oak openings, burr-oak plains, and 
small prairies, the latter offering a special inducement 
to settlers from the states southward familiar with 
prairie land; streams, shore water and the Indian 
trails lay at hand to aid communication and trans- 
portation. 

Among the conditions other than physical environ- 
ment affecting the settler's relations to land, were the 
Indian land titles. These titles in the Lower Peninsula 
were, with slight exceptions, extinguished by four great 
treaties in 1807, 1819, 1821 and 1836; the first ceded 
the southeastern part of Michigan, west as far as the 
principal meridian and north well into the Saginaw 
region; within two years near the beginning of this 
period, by the treaties of Saginaw and Chicago in 1819 
and 1821, the great belt of country comprising the 
valleys of the Saginaw, the Grand, the Kalamazoo and 
the St. Joseph River systems was transferred to the 
Government. Excepting in the southwest these lands 
came upon the market far in advance of the actual 
needs of settlers, and the public land sales were regu- 
lated by the Government in the true interests of settle- 
ment. Specially noteworthy are the several acts of 
Congress repealing the credit system, reducing the 
size of parcels in which land could be purchased, and 
recognizing the claims of squatters. Often the opera- 
tions of speculators kept settlers from desired lands or 
impeded the growth of a struggling village, but these 



CONCLUSION • 495 

laws tended to counteract them in the interests of the 
actual settlers. The scarcity of a medium of exchange 
for some years after the War of 1812, which was a 
handicap on the transference of properties, was par- 
tially remedied by the chartering of banks in the 
Territory. 

The early reports which reached the East about 
Michigan were conflicting, but on the whole they re- 
acted favorably. Edward Tiffin's report in 1815 
created lasting prejudice in many minds; but the later 
United States surveys did much to offset it, and travel- 
ers like McKenney, Evans, and Hoffman gave through 
the pfess favorable views of the new Territory. Makers 
of schoolbooks and guidebooks revised their works in 
the light of later knowledge. Settlers returning to the 
East on business, or to visit, or to bring out their rel- 
atives, gave their views. Letters increased in number 
with the volume of immigration and the improvement 
of post roads. Many of these "letters from the West" 
were published in eastern newspapers. Speculators 
circulated by the many thousands glowing praises of 
Michigan lands. Michigan newspapers, especially the 
Detroit papers, beginning with the Detroit Gazette in 
1817, set forth Michigan's advantages to settlers. 

The improvements made in transportation in this 
period, though they advanced little beyond the sta- 
tutes authorizing them were, by anticipation, a stim- 
ulus of first importance to settlement. The most im- 
portant were the national military roads extending 
along the entire water front southward from Fort 
Gratiot and branching into the interior from all the 
important centers of population on this shore road. 



496 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The Chicago Road is the key to the earhest inland 
settlements outside those in Oakland, which were in- 
fluenced by the Saginaw Road. The most important 
road authorized by the Territorial government in this 
period was that through the Kalamazoo Valley, the 
importance of which for settlement was only second 
to that of the Chicago Road. There were small be- 
ginnings in national harbor improvement, and prepara- 
tions were active for canals and railroads. Steam 
navigation on the Great Lakes and the opening of the 
Erie Canal were strong stimuli to immigration, though 
the masses of immigrants in this period appear to have 
come overland. 

Of the external influences causing immigration none 
were more potent than those causes which stimulated 
foreign immigration, especially economic pressure in 
Ireland and the European revolutions of 1830. 

One constant disabling factor to settlers was the 
prevalence of malarial diseases, especially the "ague 
and fever," caused by the mosquitoes which infested 
all parts of the Territory. The Black Hawk War of 
1832 and the cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1834 
affected settlement seriously and widely, but tem- 
porarily. 

In the character of the population there was both a 
check and a stimulus. There were, besides the immi- 
grants from the eastern states of the Union, the French- 
Canadians and a sprinkling of English, Irish, Scotch 
and Germans. The data is wanting with which to 
determine the proportion of the foreign-born in the 
total population, but it was small. Excepting the 
French-Canadians, it first became appreciable after 



CONCLUSION 497 

the revolutions of 1830 in Europe. There was of 
course a larger proportion who were of foreign descent. 
Combining results from the study of Washtenaw 
County with those obtained from the more general 
data given for the several settlement areas, it is ap- 
parently safe to say of the native element that ex- 
cepting in the southwestern counties an overwhelming 
majority had their last place of residence in western 
New York; also that of these a very large proportion 
were born in the New England States, principally in 
Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

The main agents determining the sources of popula- 
tion were the position of the Territory almost directly 
west of Canada, New York and New England, the 
comparative ease of transportation from the East, the 
appeal made by the physical and economic character 
of Michigan to the East rather than to the South, 
the economic and political pressure in the eastern 
states and abroad, and the southern barrier of com- 
peting lands in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. 

Forces tending to amalgamate the native and foreign 
elements were, in the first place, the great preponder- 
ance of the Americans in ntmiber; but equally efficient 
was the economic fact of the necessity of a common 
struggle for a livelihood under conditions which 
fostered a democratic appreciation of the worth of the 
individual. 

The presence of the Indians had its good and its 
bad features. As agricultural settlers the Indians were 
a negligible quantity in the population, but they were 
a factor to be reckoned with in their relations with 
settlers. The Indian could be helpful to the settler 

63 



498 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

as a guide or temporary aid in getting supplies, or he 
could be annoying; and he was more likely to be the 
latter when in liquor or when influenced by hostile 
traders. The Indian villages called attention to choice 
spots, though the reservations were on the whole a 
source of delay to the settler. 

The hospitality of the Michigan French- Canadians 
was a welcome aid to the first American immigrants, 
but the prejudices and the thriftlessness of these 
original settlers held back from enterprising methods 
much of the best land along the streams near the 
southeastern shore. The business ability of the young- 
er settlers from New York and New England was a 
strong stimulus. There was a notable absence of 
social and religious eccentrics, and in general the moral 
tone of the settlers was high, inviting desirable ele- 
ments of population from the older centers. 

The chief motives that guided settlers in choosing 
locations for settlement are clear, but a very long and 
careful scrutiny would be needed to determine except 
roughly the physiographic preferences that influenced 
people from particular states or countries. The com- 
pact settlements of the French-Canadians were made 
at the river mouths, for ease of communication, of 
defense, of food supply and of trade. Race affiliation 
doubtless played a part. These people kept quite 
away from the interior. For their purposes there was 
more land along shore than tliey needed. The only 
Frenchmen in the interior were the occasional Indian 
traders or the agents of the -American Fur Company. 

Foreign elements other than the Canadian-French 
seem to have been most numerous in Detroit and the 



CONCLUSION 499 

shore villages. Germans had begun to gather in the 
vicinity of Ann Arbor, and in less numbers at other 
points in the interior. English settlers appeared at 
White Pigeon and at various points on the Chicago 
Road. There were Scotch in northwestern Macomb 
County. The high land of Bruce Township may have 
had upon the Scotch settlers an influence similar to 
that reported about the effect which the New England 
aspect of Romeo and Vermontville had upon their New 
England settlers. A Scotch settlement or other settle- 
ment, as in the case of the Canadian-French, had a 
natural affinity for settlers from the same nation, 
section or State. The power of this influence to direct 
later settlement appears not to have been strong in 
places where superior economic advantages conflicted 
with it. The influences of previous occupation are 
obvious in farming and lumbering, and to some extent 
in the village industries and trades; but men of great 
diversity of previous occupations engaged in farming. 

The main agents affecting distribution of population 
were the relative position and excellence of the various 
physical and economic advantages : water power, drain- 
age, springs of mineral and drinking water, lakes, 
trails, fertile soils, openings and forests. Later con- 
ditions were the roads and the presence of older 
settlements. Not least were the reports favorable or 
unfavorable about lands, the healthfulness of the 
climate, and the operations of speculators. 

The rate and distribution of settlement is roughly 
indicated by the organization of counties. Before the 
beginning of public land sales in Detroit in 1818 only 
three counties had sufficient people to warrant organiza- 



500 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

tion; these were Wayne, Monroe and Macomb. In 
1821 the remaining shore county of St. Clair was 
organized; and in the preceding year similar attention 
was given Oakland, the first inland county. The 
organizing of Washtenaw and Lenawee counties in 
1826 showed an exteuvsion of settlement along the 
Chicago Road, and in 1829-31 a further extension is 
indicated in the prairie region of the southwest by 
the organization of St. Joseph, Cass, Berrien and 
Kalamazoo counties. Jackson and Calhoun counties 
on the Territorial Road, and Branch on the Chicago 
Road, were organized in 1832-33. This included all 
of the two lower tiers of counties excepting Van Buren 
and Hillsdale. No counties were organized before 
1835 in either the Grand or Saginaw valleys, though a 
few settlements had been made there ; the rapid growth 
in 1835-37 is indicated by the organizing of all of the 
present counties in those regions. 

The direction of settlement is seen to have been 
from the eastern shore along the larger rivers and 
roads inland to the southeastern divide, moving 
further west first along the Chicago Road, then along 
the Territorial Road. In the southwest the organiz- 
ing of Kalamazoo before Jackson and Calhoun counties 
suggests another influence, which is found in the pro- 
jection of settlement from Ohio and Indiana across 
Cass and St. Joseph to the Kalamazoo prairies. The 
backwardness of Branch and Hillsdale counties ap- 
pears to have been due mainly to their dense forests 
and to the attraction of the more desirable prairie 
lands westward. 



CONCLUSION 501 

The comparative growth of the several sections in 
population was about such as these facts would sug- 
gest. At the end of 1834 the counties east of the 
dividing ridge were far ahead of those west of it, with 
a population nearly five times as large. The section 
having the most people was that comprising the first 
inland counties — Oakland, Washtenaw and Lenawee — 
which exceeded the population of the shore counties 
by a few thousand. The counties along the Chicago 
Road west of Lenawee County exceeded the popula- 
tion of those on the Territorial Road west of Washtenaw 
by about a third. The Grand and Saginaw valleys 
had but a few hundred settlers. Of all the counties, 
Wayne took the lead, having within a few hundred 
as many people as the whole of the Territory west of 
the dividing ridge; but a large part of this was urban 
population; Detroit had nearly five thousand people. 
In rural population the leadership went to Washtenaw ; 
Oakland County, despite its earlier start and larger 
area, was not, like Washtenaw, on the main line of 
immigration in this period. On the Chicago Road, 
in the St. Joseph Valley, the leading county was Cass, 
closely followed by St. Joseph; on the Territorial 
Road, Kalamazoo County had much more than 
double the population of any other county west of 
Washtenaw. Cass, St. Joseph and Kalamazoo coun- 
ties had each slightly above three thousand people; 
Berrien, Calhoun and Jackson had each a few hun- 
dred less than two thousand; Branch and Hillsdale 
counties together barely exceeded a thousand. 

By 1837, owing to the advance of immigration to 
the interior, notable changes had taken place in the 



502 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

relative proportions of population in all sectionvS. The 
total population of Michigan was then about 175,000, 
of which considerably over a third was west of the 
dividing ridge in the valleys of the St. Joseph, the 
Kalamazoo, the Grand and the Saginaw rivers. A 
similar proportion was contained in counties above the 
northern boundaries of Wayne and Kalamazoo; that 
is, above the two southern tiers. The center of popula- 
tion was in the vicinity of Washtenaw. 

Comparing sections, the four eastern shore counties 
about equaled, within a few thousand, the population 
of the first three inland counties of Oakland, Wash- 
tenaw and Lenawee; and the counties of the St. Joseph 
Valley on the Chicago Road had about a third more 
people than those in the Kalamazoo Valley on the 
Territorial Road. In the Grand River region, with 
nearly double the area of the Kalamazoo Valley, there 
was about a third as many settlers as in that section; 
while northeast, in the Saginaw country, in a much 
smaller area (including Livingston County) there was 
about one-half again as many settlers as in the Grand 
River region. 

The population of the Grand and Saginaw valleys 
together about equalled the population of the single 
county of Oakland, or Washtenaw, or Wayne. These 
were the three most populous counties, containing each 
a few over twenty thousand people, with Wayne 
slightly in the lead owing to the population of De- 
troit. 

A contrast worthy of note was presented by the 
three first inland counties — Oakland, Washtenaw and 
Lenawee — ^with the neighboring counties; eliminating 



CONCLUSION 503 

Detroit in the case of Wayne and Washtenaw, each 
had a greater population than the county immediately 
east or west of it. The difference was very marked in 
the counties immediately west. In the St. Joseph 
Valley the leading county was still Cass, followed 
closely by St. Joseph; the population of Berrien about 
equalled that of Branch or Hillsdale. The popu- 
lations of the counties in the Kalamazoo Valley 
decreased somewhat regularly in amount with the 
distance westward, being greatest in Jackson County 
and least in Van Btiren and Allegan; the latter 
two numbered together but a few over two thousand. 
The most populous counties of the Grand River coim- 
try were Kent, Ionia and Eaton, Kent nearly doubling 
the population of either of the others. Clinton and 
Barry were the least settled. In the Saginaw country 
Livingston County ranked first, more than doubling 
the population of either Genesee or Lapeer, which 
numbered about two thousand each. The county of 
Saginaw had less than a thousand people. 

In capacity to centralize population, the county seat 
villages had a decided advantage over all other vil- 
lages. Detroit had the additional advantage of being 
the capital of the Territory and was the only incor- 
porated city in this period. Most of the county seats 
were incorporated villages. 

As social and poHtical centers these communities, 
with the exception of Detroit, had as yet scarcely de- 
veloped a strongly marked individuality. Detroit 
owed its prestige to its age, its French traditions and 
population, its military prominence, and its being the 



504 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

capital city of the Territory. Its commencing ma- 
terially anew after the fire of 1805 with a plan modelled 
on the city of Washington gave it more of an American 
air than it would probably have attained otherwise 
for many years. While the spirit of the old French 
regime remained a permanent heritage the aversion of 
the French to changes, their small appreciation of 
popular education and civil institutions, and especially 
their lack of enterprise, made them temporarily a 
hindrance to settlement. But as Detroit was the 
rendezvous for almost all settlers coming from the 
East, and the point from which almost all travelers 
out of the Territory took their departure for the East, 
it shared in all the forces and activities that made for 
or against the settlement of the Territory; the conser- 
vative influence of the French thus tended to be 
rapidly overborne. Although Detroit had in 1837 but 
little over eight thousand inhabitants, it had acquired 
as a result of being an epitome of the urban life of 
the Territory a degree of cosmopolitanism character- 
istic of a city of many times that number. 

Economic classes were not sharply distinguished in 
this period, industry differentiating so little in this 
primitive society. The interaction of farm and village 
was just beginning to be felt, and in the villages the de- 
mand for carpenters, mechanics and laborers in shop 
and factory was growing. All the industries were 
new and reflected a rich but undeveloped environ- 
ment; yet lumbering, agriculture and manufacturing 
had grown sufficiently to show the trend of the fu- 
ture and its great possibilities. 



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APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 



PUBLIC ACTS RELATING TO MICHIGAN TERRITORY 

An Ordinance, for the government of the territory of the United 
States, Northwest of the river Ohio [1787]. 

Be it ordained, by the United States, in Congress assembled, 
That the said territory, for the purposes of temporary govern- 
ment, be one district; subject, however, to be divided into two 
districts, as future circuinstances may, in the opinion of Congress, 
make it expedient. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid. That the estates, 
both of resident and non-resident proprietors in the said territory, 
dying intestate, shall descend to and be distributed among their 
children, and the descendants of a deceased child, in equal parts; 
the descendants of a deceased child or grand child, to take a 
share of their deceased parent in equal parts among them; and 
where there shall be no children or descendants, then in equal 
parts to the next of kin, in equal degree: and among collaterals, 
the children of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate, shall 
have, in equal parts among them, their deceased parent's share; 
and there shall, in no case, be a distinction between kindred of 
the whole and half blood; saving in all cases to the widow of the 
intestate her third part of the real estate for life, and one-third 
part of the personal estate; and this law relative to descents and 
dower shall remain in full force until altered by the legislature of 
the district. And until the governor and judges shall adopt laws, 
as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory may be 
devised or bequeathed by wills in writing, signed and sealed by 
him or her, in whom the estate may be, (being of full age,) and 
attested by three witnesses; and real estates may be conveyed by 
lease and release, or bargain and sale, signed, sealed and delivered 
by the person, being of full age, in whom the estate may be, 
and attested by two witnesses, provided such will be duly proved. 



608 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

such conveyances be acknowledged, or the execution thereof duly 
proved, and be recorded within one year after proper magistrates, 
courts, and registers shall be appointed for that purpose; and 
personal property may be transferred by delivery; saving, how- 
ever, to the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers 
of the Kaskaskias, Saint Vincents, and the neighboring villages, 
who have heretofore professed themselves citizens of Virginia, 
their laws and customs now in force among them, relative to 
the descent and conveyance of property. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That there shall be 
appointed, from time to time, by congress, a governor, whose 
commission shall continue in force for the term of three years, 
unless sooner revoked by Congress; he shall reside in the district, 
and have a freehold estate therein, in one thousand acres of land, 
while in the exercise of his ofhce. 

There shall be appointed from time to time, by congress, a 
secretary, whose commission shall continue in force for four years, 
unless sooner revoked; he shall reside in the district, and have a 
freehold estate therein, in five hundred acres of land, while in the 
exercise of his office. It shall be his duty to keep and preserve 
the acts and laws passed by the legislature, and the public records 
of the district, and the proceedings of the governor in his execu- 
tive department; and transmit authentic copies of such acts and 
proceedings every six months, to the secretary of congress. 
There shall also be appointed a court, to consist of three judges, 
any two of whom to form a court, who shall have a common law 
jurisdiction, and reside in the district, and have each therein 
a freehold estate in five hundred acres of land, while in the exer- 
cise of their offices; and their commissions shall continue in force 
during good behaviour. 

The governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt 
and publish in the district such laws of the original states, crim- 
inal and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the cir- 
cumstances of the district, and report them to congress from 
time to time; which laws shall be in force in the district until 
the organization of the general assembly therein, unless dis- 
approved of by congress; but afterwards the legislature shall 
have authority to alter them as they shall think fit. 

The governor for the time being, shall be commander-in-chief 
of the militia, appoint and commission all officers in the same, 
below the rank of general officers; all general officers shall be 
appointed and commissioned by congress. 

Previous to the organization of the general assembly, the 
governor shall appoint such magistrates and other civil officers, 
in each county or township, as he shall find necessary for the 



APPENDIX 509 

preservation of the peace and good order in the same. After 
the general assembly shall be organized, the powers and duties 
of the magistrates and other civil ofhcers shall be regulated 
and defined by the said assembly; but all magistrates and other 
civil officers, not herein otherwise directed shall, during the 
continuance of this temporary government, be appointed by 
the governor. 

For the prevention of crimes and injuries, the laws to be 
adopted or made, shall have force in all parts of the district, 
and for the execution of process, criminal and civil, the govenior 
shall make proper divisions thereof; and he shall proceed from 
time to time, as circumstances may require, to lay out the parts 
of the district in which the Indian titles shall have been extin- 
guished, into counties and townships, subject however, to such 
alterations as may thereafter be made by the legislature. 

So soon as there shall be five thousand free male inhabitants 
of full age, in the district, upon giving proof thereof to the gov- 
ernor, they shall receive authority, with time and place, to elect 
representatives from their counties or townships, to represent 
them in the general assembly: Provided, That for every five hun- 
dred free male inhabitants, there shall be one representative, 
and so on progressively with the nimiber of free male inhabitants, 
shall the right of representation increase, until the number of 
representatives shall amount to twenty-five, after which, the 
number and proportion of representatives shall be regulated by 
the legislature: Provided, That no person be eligible or qualified 
to act as a representative, unless he shall have been a citizen of 
one of the United States three years, and be a resident in the 
district, or unless he shall have resided in the district three years, 
and in either case shall likewise hold in his own right, in fee 
simple, two hundred acres of land within the same: Provided 
also, That a freehold in fifty acres of land in the district, having 
been a citizen of one of the States, and being resident in the 
district, or the like freehold, and two years' residence in the 
district, shall be necessary to qualify a man as an elector of a 
representative. 

The representative thus elected shall serve for the term of 
two years; and in case of the death of a representative, or removal 
from office, the governor shall issue a writ to the county or town- 
ship for which he was a member, to elect another in his stead, 
to serve for the residue of the term. 

The general assembly, or legislature, shall consist of the gov- 
ernor, legislative council, and a house of representatives. The 
legislative council shall consist of five members, to continue in 
office five years, unless sooner removed by congress; any three 



510 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of whom to be a quorum. And the members of the council shall 
be nominated and appointed in the following manner, to wit: 
As soon as representatives shall be elected, the governor shall 
appoint a time and place for them to meet together, and when 
met, they shall nominate ten persons, residents in the district, 
and each possessed of a freehold in five hiuidred acres of land, 
and return their names to congress; five of whom congress shall 
appoint and commission to serve as aforesaid; and whenever a 
vacancy shall happen in the council, by death or removal from 
office, the house of representatives shall nominate two persons, 
qualified as aforesaid, for each vacancy, and return their names 
to congress; one of whom congress shall appoint and commission 
for the residue of the term. And every five years, four months 
at least before the expiration of the time of service of the mem- 
bers of council, the said house shall nominate ten persons, quali- 
fied as aforesaid, and return their names to congress; five of 
whom congress shall appoint and commission to serve as members 
of the council five years, unless sooner removed. And the gov- 
ernor, legislative council, and house of representatives, shall 
have authority to make laws, in all cases, for the good govern- 
ment of the district, not repugnant to the principles and articles 
in this ordinance established and declared: And all bills, having 
passed by a majority in the house, and by a majority in the 
council, shall be referred to the governor for his assent; but no 
bill or legislative act whatever, shall be of any force without 
his assent. The governor shall have power to convene, prorogue, 
and dissolve the general assembly, when in his opinion it shall 
be expedient. 

The governor, judges, legislative council, secretary, and such 
other officers as congress shall appoint in the district, shall take 
an oath or affirmation of fidelity and of office; the governor 
before the president of congress, and all other officers before the 
governor. As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, 
the council and house assembled, in one room, shall have author- 
ity, by joint ballot, to elect a delegate to congress, who shall 
have a seat in congress, with a right of debating, but not of 
voting, during this temporary government. 

And for extending the fundamental principles of civil and 
religious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, 
their laws, and constitutions are erected; to fix and establish 
those principles as the basis of all laws, constitutions and govern- 
ments, which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said teiri- 
tory ; to provide also for the establishment of states, and permanent 
governments therein, and for their admission to a share in the 



APPENDIX 511 

federal councils, on an equal footing with the original states, 
at as early periods as may be consistent with the general interest : 
It is hereby ordained and declared, by the authority aforesaid, 
That the following articles shall be considered as 'articles of 
compact between the original states, and the people and states 
in the said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by 
common consent, to wit: 

ARTICLE I 

No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and orderly 
manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship 
or religious sentiments, in the said territory. 

ARTICLE II 

The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be entitled 
to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and trial by jury; 
of a proportionate representation of the people in the legislature, 
and of judicial proceedings according to the course of the common 
law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for capital offences, 
where the proof shall be evident, or the presumption great. All 
fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual punishments 
shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or 
property, but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the 
land; and should the public exigencies make it necessary, for 
the common preservation, to take any person's property, or to 
demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made 
for the same. And in the just preservation of rights and 
property, it is understood and declared, that no law ought ever 
to be made, or have force in the said territor}^ that shall in any 
manner whatever interfere with or affect private contracts or 
engagements, bona fide, and without fraud previously formed. 

ARTICLE III 

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good 
government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means 
of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost good 
faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands 
and property shall never be taken from them withotit their con- 
sent, and in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never 
be invaded or disturbed, miless in just and lawful wars, author- 
ized by congress; but laws, founded in justice and htmianity, 
shall, from time to time, be made, for preventing wrongs being 
done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them. 



512 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ARTICLE IV 

The said territory, and the states which may be formed therein, 
shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United 
States of America, stibject to the articles of confederation, and 
to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made; 
and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in con- 
gress assembled, conformable thereto. The inhabitants and 
settlers in the said territory shall be subject to pay a part of the 
federal debts, contracted or to be contracted, and a proportional 
part of the expenses of government, to be apportioned on them 
by congress, according to the same common rule and measure 
by which apportionments thereof shall be made on the other 
states; and the taxes for paying their proportion shall be laid 
and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of 
the district or districts, or new states, as in the original states, 
within the time agreed upon by the United States in congress 
assembled. The legislatures of those districts or new states, 
shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil by 
the United States in congress assembled, nor with any regtila- 
tions congress may find necessary for securing the title in such 
soil to the bona fide purchasers. No tax shall be imposed on 
lands, the property of the United States; and in no case shall 
non-resident proprietors be taxed higher than residents. The 
navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence, 
and the carrying places between the same, shall be common 
highways, and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of the 
said territory, as to the citizens of the United States, and those 
of any other states that may be admitted into the confederacy, 
without any tax, impost, or duty therefor. 

ARTICLE V 

There shall be formed in the said territory, not less than three, 
nor more than five states; and the boundaries of the states, as 
soon as Virginia shall alter her act of cession, and consent to 
the same, shall become fixed and estab'ished as follows, to wit: 
The western state in the said territory shall be bounded by the 
Mississippi, the Ohio, and Wabash rivers; a direct line drawn 
from the Wabash and Post Vincents, due north to the territorial 
line between the United States and Canada; and by the said 
territorial line to the Lake of the Woods and Mississippi. The 
middle state shall be bounded by the said direct line, the Wabash 
from Post Vincents to the Ohio, by the Ohio, by a direct line 
drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami, to the 



APPENDIX 513 

said territorial line, and by the said territorial line. The eastern 
state shall be bounded by the last mentioned direct line, the 
Ohio, Pennsylvania and the said territorial line: Provided, 
however, and it is further understood and declared. That the 
boundaries of these three states shall be subject so far to be 
altered, that if congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they 
shall have authority to form one or two states in that part of 
the said territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn 
through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan. And 
whenever any of the said states shall have sixty thousand free 
inhabitants therein, such state shall be admitted, by the dele- 
gates, into the congress of the United States, on an equal footing 
with the original states, in all respects whatever; and shall be 
at liberty to form a permanent constitution and state govern- 
ment. Provided, The constitution and government so to be 
formed, shall be republican, and in confoiTnity to the principles 
contained in these articles; and, so far as it can be consistent 
with the general interests of the confederacy, such admission 
shall be allowed at an earlier period, and when there may be 
a less number of free inhabitants in the state than sixty thousand. 

ARTICLE VI 

There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the 
said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided 
always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom 
labor or servdce is lawfully claimed in any one of the original 
states, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to 
the person claiming his or her labor or service, as aforesaid. 

Be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, That the resolutions 
of the twenty-third of April, one thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-four, relative to the subject of this ordinance, be and the 
same are hereby repealed, and declared null and void. 

Done by the United States, in congress assembled, the 
thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of their sovereignty and 
independence the twelfth. 
65 



514 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



An Act to divide the Indiana Territory into two separate 
governments. 

Ee it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from 
; nd after the thirtieth day of June next, all that part of the 
Indiana territory, which lies north of a line drawn east from 
the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall 
intersect Lake Erie, and east of a line drawn from the said south- 
erly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern 
extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of 
the United States, shall, for the purpose of temporary govern- 
ment, constitute a separate territory, and be called Michigan. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That there shall be estab- 
lished within the said territory, a government in all respects 
similar to that provided by the ordinance of Congress, passed on 
the thirteenth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-seven, for the government of the territory of the United 
States, northwest of the river Ohio; and by an act passed on 
the seventh day of August, one thousand seven hundred and 
eighty-nine, entitled "An act to provide for the government of 
the territory northwest of the river Ohio;" and the inhabitants 
thereof shall be entitled to, and enjoy all and singular the rights, 
privileges, and advantages granted and secured to the people of 
the territory of the United States, northwest of the river Ohio, 
by the said ordinance. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the officers for the 
said territory, who by virtue of this act shall be appointed by 
the President of the United States, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, shall respectively exercise the same powers, 
perform the same duties and receive for their services the same 
compensations, as by the ordinance aforesaid and the laws of 
the United States, have been provided and established for similar 
officers in the Indiana territory; and the duties and emoluments 
of superintendent of Indian affairs, shall be united with those 
of governor. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That nothing in this act 
contained shall be construed so as, in any manner, to affect the 
government now in force in the Indiana territory, further than 
to prohibit the exercise thereof within the said territory of Mich- 
igan, from and after the aforesaid thirtieth day of June next. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That all suits, process, and 
proceeding, which, on the thirtieth day of June next, shall be 
pending in the court of any county, which shall be included 



APPENDIX 515 

within the said territory of Michigan; and also all suits, process, 
and proceedings, which on the said thirtieth day of June next! 
shall be pending in the general court of the Indiana territory, in 
consequence of any writ of removal, or order for trial at bar, and 
which had been removed from any of the counties included within 
the limits of the territory of Michigan aforesaid, shall, in all things 
concerning the same, be proceeded on, and judgments and decrees 
rendered thereon, in the same manner as if the said Indiana 
territory had remained undivided. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That Detroit shall be the 
seat of government of the said territory, until Congress shall 
otherwise direct. 

Approved, January 11, 1805. 



An Act authorizing the election of a delegate from the Michigan 
territory to the Congress of the United States, and extending 
the right of suffrage to the citizens of said territory. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That the 
citizens of the Michigan territory be, and they are hereby author- 
ized to elect one delegate to the Congress of the United States, 
who shall possess the qualifications, and exercise the privileges, 
heretofore required of, and granted to, the delegates from the 
several territories of the United States. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That every free white male 
citizen of said territory, above the age of twenty-one years, who 
shall have resided therein one year next preceding an election, 
and who shall have paid a county or territorial tax, shall be 
entitled to vote at such election for a delegate to the Congress of 
the United States, in such manner, and at such times and places, 
as shall be prescribed by the governor and judges of said territory. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted. That the person, duly 
qualified according to law, who shall receive the greatest number 
of votes at such election, shall be furnished, by the governor of 
said territory, with a certificate, under his official seal, setting 
forth that he is duly elected, by the qualified electors, the dele- 
gate from said territory to the Congress of the United States, 
for the term of two years from the date of said certificate, which 
shall entitle the person to whom the same shall be given to take 
his seat in the House of Representatives in that capacity, 

Approved, February 16, 1819, 



■516 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



An Act to amend the ordinance and acts of Congress for the 
government of the territory of Michigan, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That all 
citizens of the United States, having the qualifications pre- 
scribed by the act, entitled "An act authorizing the election of 
a delegate from the Michigan territory to the Congress of the 
United States, and extending the right of suffrage to the citizens 
of said territory," approved February the sixteenth, eighteen 
hundred and nineteen, shall be entitled to vote at any public 
election in the said territory, and shall be eligible to any office 
therein. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That the same powers which 
were granted to the governor, legislative council, and House of 
Representatives, of the North-western territory, by the ordinance 
of Congress, passed on the thirteenth day of July, seventeen 
hundred and eighty- seven, and which powers are transferred to 
the territory of Michigan by the act entitled "An act to divide 
the Indiana territory into two separate. governments," approved 
January the eleventh, eighteen hundred and five, are hereby 
conferred upon, and shall be exercised by the governor and a 
legislative council: which council shall consist of nine persons, 
any five of whom shall be a quorum, and who shall serve for the 
term of two years, and be appointed as follows, to wit: At the 
next election of the delegate to Congress from the said territory 
after the passing of this act, the qualified electors shall choose, 
by ballot, eighteen persons, having the qualifications of electors; 
and such election shall be conducted, certified, and the result 
declared, agreeably to the territorial law prescribing the mode 
of electing such delegate. But the time and manner of electing 
the members of the legislative council shall, after the first elec- 
tion, be prescribed by the legislature of the said territory; and 
the names of the eighteen persons, having the greatest number 
of votes, shall be transmitted by the governor of the said terri- 
tory, to the President of the United States, who shall nominate, 
and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint 
therefrom, the said legislative council; and vacancies occurring in 
the said council shall be filled in the same manner, from the list 
transmitted as aforesaid; And the President shall have power, 
in the recess of the Senate, to make the appointments author- 
ized by this act; but all appointments, so made, shall be sub- 
mitted to the Senate at their next session, for confinnation. The 
first legislative council shall be assembled at such time and place 



APPENDIX 517 

as the governor shall, by proclamation, designate. No session, in 
any one year, shall exceed the term of sixty days, nor shall any 
act passed by the governor and legislative council be valid, after 
the same shall have been disapproved by Congress. The mem- 
bers of the legislative council shall receive two dollars each, per 
day, during their attendance at the sessions thereof, and two 
dollars for every twenty miles in going to, and returning there- 
from, in full compensation for their services, and which shall be 
paid by the United States: Provided, That nothing herein con- 
tained shall be construed to affect the right of the citizens of 
said territory to elect a delegate to Congress; and the duties 
required of the govenor [governor] and judges by the act referred 
to in the first section of this act, shall be perfoiTned by the 
govenor [governor] and legislative council. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the powers and duties 
of the judges of the said territory shall be regulated by such 
laws as are, or may be, in force therein; and the said judges shall 
possess a chancery, as well as common law, jurisdiction. The 
tenure of ofhce of the said judges shall be limited to four years: 
and on the first day of February, one thousand eight hundred 
and twenty-four, and every four years thereafter, the ofhce of 
each of the said judges shall become vacant: Provided, That 
nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to deprive 
the judges of the territory of the jurisdiction conferred upon 
them by the laws of the United States. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That the legislature shall 
have power to submit, at any time, to the people of the said 
territory, the question, whether a general assembly shall be 
organized agreeably to the provisions of the ordinance aforesaid; 
and, if a majority of the qualified electors shall be in favour of 
such organization, then the powers vested by this act in the 
legislative council shall cease and determine, and a general 
assembly shall be organized, in conformity with the said ordi- 
nance, subject to the following provision: The govenor [governor] 
of the said territory shall divide the same into five districts, 
and the qualified voters in each district shall elect one member of 
the legislative council, which shall possess the same powers 
heretofore granted to the legislative council of the North-western 
territory; and the members of the council shall hold their offices 
four years; and until there shall be five thousand free white male 
inhabitants, of twenty-one years and upwards, in said territory, 
the whole number of Representatives to the general assembly 
shall not be less than seven, nor more than nine, to be appor- 
tioned by the govenor [governor] to the several counties in the 
said territory, agreeably to the niimber of free white males above 



518 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

the age of twenty-one years, which they may contain: but after 
the organization of the general assembly, the apportionment of 
the representation shall be made by such assembly: Provided, 
That there shall not be more than twelve, nor less than seven, 
of the whole number of representatives, until there shall be six 
thousand free white male inhabitants, above the age of twenty- 
one years; after which, the number of representatives shall be 
regulated agreeably to the ordinance aforesaid. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted. That the govenor [governor] 
of the said territory shall have power to grant pardons for offenses 
against the laws of the said territory, and reprieves for those 
against the United States, until the decision of the President 
theron [thereon] shall be made known. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted. That so much of the ordi- 
nance aforesaid, and laws of the United States, as are inconsistent 
with the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, as 
respects the territory of Michigan, repealed. 

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted. That from and after the 
first day of June next, there shall be but one clerk of the supreme 
court of the territory of Michigan, who shall perform all the 
duties of clerk of said court, whether sitting as a circuit and 
district court, or as judges of the territorial court. 

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted. That the accounting officers 
of the treasury shall settle and adjust the accounts of John J. 
Deming, making him a reasonable allowance for his services as 
clerk of said district and circuit court, up to the first day of June 
next, and that the same be paid out of any money in the treasury, 
not otherwise appropriated. 

Approved, March 3, 1823. 



An Act to allow the citizens of the territory of Michigan to elect 
the members of their legislative council, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That at 
the next, and at each succeeding election of members of the 
legislative council of the territory of Michigan, the qualified elec- 
tors of the said territory may, instead of choosing twenty-six, as 
heretofore directed, elect thirteen fit persons as their represent- 
atives, in the manner, and with the qualifications now, or here- 
after to be, prescribed by law; which said representatives, so 
elected, shall be and constitute the said legislative council. And 



APPENDIX 519 

for the purpose of securing an equal representation, the governor 
and legislative council of said territory, are hereby authorized 
and required to apportion the representatives, so to be elected 
as aforesaid, among the several counties or districts, in the said 
territory, in proportion, as near as may be, to the whole nimiber 
of inhabitants in each county or district, exclusive of Indians 
not taxed. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That the said governor and 
legislative council be, and they are hereby, authorized to provide 
by law for holding, annuallj^ one or more courts, by one or more 
of the judges of the supreme court of said territory, in each of 
the counties in that part of the territory eastward of the Lake 
Michigan ; and also for the appointment of a clerk in each county 
to act as clerk to the said court therein; and further to prescribe 
the jurisdiction of said courts, and the powers and duties of the 
judge or judges holding the same. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the judges of the 
supreme court of the territory of Michigan have, and may exer- 
cise, the right of appointing the clerk of the said court, and of 
removing him at pleasure. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That no member of the 
legislative council shall be eligible to any office created or the 
fees of which were regulated by a law or laws passed whilst he 
was a member, during the period for which he was elected, and 
for one year thereafter. 

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted. That all laws, and parts 
of laws, in so far as the same shall be inconsistent with the pro- 
visions of this act, are hereby repealed; and, further, that Congress 
have the right, at any time, to alter or repeal this act. 

Approved, January 29, 1827. 



520 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



B 

SCHEDULE OF INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE LOWER PENINSULA 
OF MICHIGAN, 1795-1837. 

(Bureau of American Ethnology, 18th Annual Report, 
pt. 2, pp. 654-764, passim). 

1795, Aug. 3 — Greenville, Ohio — ^Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa > 

Potawatomi — {Stat, at Large, VII, 49). 

The post of Detroit and all land to the N. W., and S., of it 
to which the Indian title had been extinguished by gifts 
or grants to the French or English governments, and so 
much more land to be annexed to the district of Detroit 
as shall be comprehended between the river Rosine on the 
S., Lake St. Clair on the N., and a line the general course 
whereof shall be 6 miles distant from the W. end of Lake 
Erie and Detroit river. The necessity for the establish- 
ment of the boundaries of this tract was superseded by 
the conclusion of the treaty of Nov. 17, 1807, whereby 
the Indians ceded to the U. S. a large extent of territory 
surrounding and including within its general limits the 
tract described. The approximate, limits of this tract are, 
however, shown on the map by a dotted line. 
1807, Nov. 17 — Detroit, Michigan — Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, 

Potawatomi. — {Stat, at Large, VII, 105). 

The foregoing tribes cede to the U. S. all claim to the follow- 
ing described tract of country, viz: Beginning at the 
mouth of the Miami river of the lakes and running thence 
up the middle thereof to the mouth of the great Au Glaize 
river; thence due N. until it intersects a parallel of latitude 
to be drawn from the outlet of Lake Huron which forms 
the river Sinclair; thence running NE. the course that may 
be found will lead in a direct line to White Rock in Lake 
Huron; thence due E. until it intersects the boundary line 
between the U. S. and Upper Canada in said lake; thence 
southwardly, following the said boundary line, down said 
lake through the river Sinclair, Lake St. Clair, and the 
river Detroit, into Lake Erie, to a point due E. of the 
aforesaid Miami river; thence W. to the place of beginning. 

Three miles square on the river Raizin at a place called 
Macon, and where the river Macon falls into the river 
Raizin, which place is about 14 miles from the mouth of 



APPENDIX 621 

said river Raizin. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaties of Sept. 

29, 1817, and Sept. 19, 1827. 
Two sections of 1 square mile each on the river Rouge at 

Seginsiwin's village. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of 

Sept. 19, 1827. 
Two sections of 1 mile square each at Tonquish's village, 

near the river Rouge. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of 

Sept. 19, 1827. 
Three miles square on Lake St. Clair above the river Huron, 

to include Machonce's village. 
Six sections of 1 mile square each, within the cession afore- 
said, in such situations as the said Indians shall elect, 

subject to the approval of the President of the U. S. as 

to the places of location. 

General Note . — This three mile square tract and 3 of the 
6 unlocated sections were surveyed and located by Aaron 
Greely in 1810, under direction of Governor Hull, as 
follows: One tract of 262.7 acres on Lake St. Clair at the 
mouth of the Au Vaseau, which included the site of 
Machonce's village; one tract of 534 acres on Lake St. 
Clair above the mouth of Salt creek; one tract of 1,200 
acres at the mouth of A. Dulude or Black river, and 5,760 
acres at the mouth of Swan creek of Lake St. Clair. These 
tracts were ceded to the U. S., May 9, 1836. The remain- 
ing 3 (of the 6 unlocated sections) had not been specific- 
ally located when they were ceded by treaty of Sept. 29, 
1817, to the Catholic Church. 
1809, Feb. 28— Act of Congress— Wyandot— (5to^ at Large, II 
527). 

The U.S. reserve for the Wyandots, two tracts, not exceeding 
5,000 acres, at Brownstown and Maguagua, Michigan 
territory, provided that if abandoned by them the tracts 
should revert to the U. S. — These tracts were ceded to the 
U. S. by treaty of Sept. 20, 1818. 
1817, Sept. 29— Foot of the rapids of the Miami of Lake Erie- 
Wyandot, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi — {Stat, at Large, 

VII, 160). 
The Potawatomy, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes cede to the 
U. S. the land within the following boundaries: Beginning 
where the western line of the State of Ohio crosses the 
river Miami of Lake Erie, which is about 21 miles above 
the mouth of the Great Auglaize river; thence down the 
middle of said Miami river to a point north of the mouth 
of the Great Auglaize river; thence with the western line 



522 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of the land ceded to the U. S. by the treaty of Detroit, 
in 1807, N. 45 miles; then W. so far that a line S. will 
strike the place of beginning; thence S. to the place of 
beginning. 

The Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomy tribes grant to 
the rector of the Catholic church of St. Anne, of Detroit, 
and to the corporations of the college at Detroit, to be 
retained or sold as they see fit, each one-half of three 
sections of land on the river Raisin, at a place called Macon; 
also 

Three sections of land not yet located, which tracts were 
reserved for the use of said Indians by the treaty of Detroit 
in 1807. — ^As shown by the language of the treaty, these 
three sections had not been located, and it was a mere 
transfer of the right to locate them from the Indians to 
the Catholic Church. 

1818, Sept. 20— St. Mary's, Ohio— Wyandot— (5toi. at Large, 
VII, 180). 

The Wyandot tribe cede to the U. S. a tract of land in the 
territory of Michigan, including the village called Browns- 
town, reserved to them and their descendants for 50 years 

• by the provisions of an act of Congress passed Feb. 28, 
1809. 

The Wyandots also cede to the U. S. a tract of land in the 
territory of Michigan, to include the village called Magua- 
gua, reserved to them and their descendants for 50 years 
by the provisions of an act of Congress passed Feb. 28, 
1809. — This reserve was ceded by treaty of Mar. 17, 1842. 

Note. — These two cessions contain in the whole not more 
than 5,000 acres. 
The U. S., in consideration of the foregoing cessions, agree 
to reserve for the use of the Wyandot Indians sections 
23, 24, 25, 26, 34, 35, 36, 27, and that part of section 22 
which contains 8 acres and lies on the S. side of the river 
Huron, being in Tp. 4 S., R. 9 E. of the first meridian in 
the territory of Michigan and containing 4,996 acres. 

1819, Sept. 24 — Saginaw, Michigan territory — Chippewa — {Stat. 
at Large, VII, 203). 

The Chippewa nation cede to the U. S. the land comprised 
within the following described boundaries, viz: Beginning 
at a point in the present Indian boundary line, which 
runs due N. from the mouth of the great Auglaize river, 
6 miles S. of the place where the base line so called inter- 
sects the same; thence W. 60 miles; in a direct line to the 



APPENDIX 523 

head of Thunder Bay river; thence down the same fol- 
lowing the courses thereof to the mouth; thence N E to 
the boundary Hne between the U. S. and the British 
Provnice of Upper Canada; thence with the same to the 
hne established by the treaty of Detroit in 1807- thence 
with said hne to the place of beginning.— This cession is 
overiapped by the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi 
cession of Aug. 29, 1821, and also by the Ottawa and 
Chippewa cession of Mar. 28, 1836. 
From the foregoing general cession the Chippewa nation 
reserves for future use and occupancy the following de- 
scribed tracts: 

One tract of 8,000 acres on the E. side of the river Au 
Sable, near where the Indians now live. — Ceded to 
the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837; q. v. 
One tract of 2,000 acres on the river Mesagwisk.— 

Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 6,000 acres on the N. side of the river 
Kawkawling at the Indian village.— Ceded to the 
U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 5,760 acres upon the Flint river, to include 
Reaum's village and a place called Kishkawbawee.— 
Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 8,000 acres on the head of the river Huron 
which empties into the Saginaw river at the village 
of Otusson.— Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Ian. 
14, 1837. 
One island in the Saginaw Bay.— Ceded to the U. S. 

by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 2,000 acres where Nabobask formerly Hved. 

—Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 1,000 acres near the island in Saginaw 
river.— Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 640 acres at the bend of the river Huron 
which empties into the Saginaw river. — Ceded to the 
U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 2,000 acres at the mouth of Point Augrais 
river.— Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 1,000 acres on the river Huron, at Menoc- 
quet's village. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Ian. 
14, 1837. 
One tract of 10,000 acres on the Shawassee river, at a 
place called the Big Rock. — Ceded to the U. S. by 
treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 



524 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

One tract of 3,000 acres on the Shawassee river at 
Ketchewaundaugenink. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty 
of Jan. 14, 1837. This tract was at the date of this 
treaty supposed to He within the hmits of the general 
cession made by article 1, and was reserved on that 
theory. It was subsequently ascertained, however, 
that it was within the hmits of the previous cession by 
the treaty of Nov. 17, 1807. It is therefore considered 
as a "grant" to the Indians from the U. S. 
One tract of 6,000 acres at the Little Forks on the 
Tetabawasink river. — Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of 
Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 6,000 acres at the Black Bird's town on 
the Tetabawasink river. — Ceded to the U. S. bv 
treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
One tract of 40,000 acres on the W. side of Saginaw 
river, to be hereafter located. — Ceded to the U. S. 
by treaty of Jan. 14, 1837. 
1821, Aug. 29 — Chicago, Illinois — Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pota- 
watami — {Stat, at Large, VII, 218). 

The foregoing nations of Indians cede to the U. S. the land 
comprehended within the following boundaries: Beginning 
at a point on the S. bank of the river St. Joseph of Lake 
Michigan near the Parcaux Vaches, due N. from Rum's 
village, and running thence S. to a line drawn due E. from 
the southern extreme of Lake Michigan; thence with the 
said line E. to the tract ceded by the Pattiwatimies to the 
U. S. by the treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817 if the said line 
should strike said tract, but if the said line should pass N. 
of the said tract, then such line shall be continued until 
it strikes the western boundary of the tract ceded to the 
U. S. by treaty of Detroit in 1807, and from the termina- 
tion of the said line, following the boundaries of former 
cessions, to the main branch of the Grand river of Lake 
Michigan, should any of the said lines cross the said river, 
but if none of the said lines should cross the said river, 
then to a point due E. of the source of the said main branch 
of the said river, and from such point due W. to the source 
of the said principal branch, and from the crossing of 
the said river or from the source thereof, as the case may 
be, down the said river on the N. bank thereof to the 
mouth; thence following the shore of Lake Michigan to 
the S. bank of the said river St. Joseph at the mouth 
thereof and thence with the said S. bank to the place of 



APPENDIX 525 

beginning. — ^This cession overlaps the tract ceded by the 
Chippewa by treaty of Sept. 24, 1819. 
From the foregoing cession the said Indians reserv^e for their 
use the following tracts, viz : 

One tract at Mang-ach-qua village, on the river Peble, 
of 6 miles square. — This reserve was ceded to the 
U. S. by treaty of Sept. 19, 1827. The boundaries 
were never ascertained. 
One tract at Mick-ke-saw-be of 6 miles square. — ^This 
reserve was ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 19, 
1827. 
One tract at the village "of Na-to-wa-se-pe of 4 miles 
square. — This reserve was ceded to the U. S. by treaty 
of Sept. 27, 1833. 
One tract at the village of Prairie Ronde of 3 miles 
square. — This reserve was ceded to the U. S. by treaty 
of Sept. 19, 1827. 
One tract at the village of Match-e-be-narh-she-wish, at 
the head of the Kekalamazoo river. — This reserv^e was 
ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 19, 1827. 
The U. S. grants from above cession 26 sections of land to 
individuals of Indian descent. 
1827, Sept. 19 — St. Joseph, Michigan territory — Potawatomi — 
(Stat, at Large, VII, 305). 

In order to consolidate some of the dispersed bands of the 
Pottawatamie tribe in the Territory of Michigan at a 
point removed from the road leading from Detroit to 
Chicago and as far as practicable from the settlements 
of the whites, it is agreed that the following tracts of land 
heretofore reserved for the use of said tribe shall be ceded 
to the U. S., viz: 

Two sections on the river Rouge at Seginsaim's village. 
— The Chippewa of Saginaw, by treaty of Jan. 14, 
1837, ceded any claim they were supposed to have 
in this reserve. 
Two sections at Tonguish's village near the river Rouge. 
— The Chippewa of Saginaw, by treaty of Jan. 14, 
1837, ceded any claim they were supposed to have 
in this reserve. 
That part of the reservation at Macon on the river 
Raisin, which yet belongs to the said tribe, containing 
6 sections, excepting therefrom one-half section where 
the Pottawatamie Chief Moran resides, which shall be 
reserved for his use. 



626 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

A tract at Mang-ach-qua village on the river Peble, of 

6 miles square.— Boundaries never ascertained. 
A tract at Mickesawbe of 6 miles square. 
A tract at the village of Prairie Ronde of 3 miles square. 
A tract at the village of Match-e-be-nash-she-wish at 
the head of the Kekalamazoo river of 3 miles square. 
In consideration of the foregoing cessions the U. S. agree to 
reserve for the use of said tribe a tract containing 99 
sections, (Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 27, 1833), 
as follows: 
Sections 5, 6, 7, and 8 in T. 5 S., R. 9 W., in the territory 

of Michigan. 
All of T. 5 S., R. 10 W., not already included in the 

Nottawa Sape reservation. 
Sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35, and 36 in T. 

5 S., R. 11 W. 
All of T. 4 S., R. 9 W. 

Sections 8, 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 30, 31, and 32 in T. 4 S., R. 
9 W. — This is given as R. 9 W. in the published treaty, 
but it should be 10 W. 
Sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25, 26, 35, and 36 in 
T. 4 S., R. 11 W. 
1828, Sept. 20 — Missionary establishments upon the St. Joseph 
of Lake Michigan, in Michigan territory — Potawatomi — 
(Stat, at Large, Yll, 317). 

The Potawatamie tribe of Indians cede to the U. S. the tracts 
of land included within the following boundaries: 

Beginning at the mouth of the St. Joseph of Lake Mich- 
igan, and thence running up the said river to a point 
on the said river half-way between La-vache-qui-pisse 
and Macousin village; thence in a direct line to the 
nineteenth-mile tree on the northern boundary line 
of the State of Indiana; thence with the same west 
to Lake Michigan; and thence with the shore of the 
said lake to the place of beginning. 
1832, Oct. 27 — Tippecanoe river, Indiana — Potawatomi of Indiana 
and Michigan— (Sto/. at Large, VII, 399). 
The Potowatomies cede to the U. S. their title and interest 
to lands in the States of Indiana and Illinois and in the 
Territory of Michigan S. of Grand river. 
From the foregoing cession the following reservations are 
made, viz: 

The reservation at Po-ca-gan's village for his band. — 
Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 27, 1833. 



APPENDIX 527 

A reservation for such of the Potowatomies as are resi- 
dent at the village of Notta-we-sipa, agreeably to 
the treaties of Sept. 19, 1827, and Sept. 20, 1828.— 
Ceded to the U. S. by treaty of Sept. 27, 1833. 
1833, Sept. 27 — Chicago, Illinois — Chippewa, Ottawa and Pota- 

watomi — {Stat, at Large, VII, 442). 

The said Indians cede to the U. S. all their lands situate in 
the territory of Michigan S. of Grand river, being the 
reservation at Notawasepe, of 4 miles square, contained 
in the third clause of the second article of the treaty made 
at Chicago on Aug. 29, 1821. 

The said Indians further cede the reservation of 99 sections 
of land described in the treaty made at St. Joseph on Sept. 
19, 1827. 

The said Indians also cede to the U. S. the tract of land on 
St. Joseph river opposite the town of Niles, and extending 
to the line of the state of Indiana, on which the villages of 
To-pe-ne-bee and Pokagon are situated, supposed to con- 
tain about 49 sections. 
1836, Mar. 28 — ^Washington, D. C. — Ottawa and Chippewa — 

{Stat, at Large, VII, 491). 

The Ottawa and Chippewa nations of Indians cede to the 
U. S. all the tract of country within the following boimd- 
aries: Beginning at the mouth of Grand river of Lake 
Michigan on the N. bank thereof and following up the 
same to the line called for in the first article of the treaty 
of Chicago of Aug. 29, 1821; thence in a direct line to the 
head of Thunder Bay river; thence with the line established 
by the treaty of Saganaw of Sept. 24, 1819, to the mouth 
of said river; thence NE. to the boundary line in Lake 
Huron between the U. S. and the British province of 
Upper Canada; thence northwestwardly following the said 
line as established by the commissioners acting under the 
treaty of Ghent, through the straits, and river St. Mary's 
to a point in Lake Superior N. of the mouth of Gitchy 
Seebing or Chocolate river; thence S. to the mouth of said 
river and up its channel to the soiurce thereof; thence in 
a direct line to the head of the Skonawba river of Green 
bay; thence down the S. bank of said river to its mouth; 
thence in a direct line through the ship channel into Green 
bay to the outer part thereof; thence S. to a point in Lake 
Michigan W. of the North cape or entrance of Grand 
river, and thence E. to the place of beginning at the cape 
aforesaid, comprehending all the lands and islands within 



528 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

these limits not hereinafter reserved. — -This cession over- 
laps the Chippewa cession by treaty of Sept. 24, 1819. 
From the foregoing cession said tribes reserve for their own 
use, to be held in common, the following tracts for J:he 
term of five years and no longer except by permission of 
the U. S.: 

One tract of 50,000 acres to be located on Little Traverse 
bay. — The general note below applies to this reserve. 
One tract of 20,000 acres to be located on the N. shore 
of Grand Traverse bay. — Surveyed in 1840. It com- 
prised fractional Tps. 28, 29, and 30 N., R. 10 W., 
and continued to be occupied as an Indian reservation 
until the reserves contemplated by treaty of July 31, 
1855, were designated. 
One tract of 70,000 acres to be located on or N. of the 
Pieire Marquetta river. Surveyed in 1840 on Man- 
istee river and occupied as a reservation until 1848, 
when it was sold. 
One tract of 1,000 acres to be located by Chingassanoo 

or the Big Sail, on the Cheboigan. 
One tract of 1,000 acres to be located by Mujeekewis, 
on Thunder Bay river. 
General Note. — After the selection by Mr. Schoolcraft of 
the 20,000 and 70,000 acre reserves under this treaty, he 
was advised that the U. S. might conclude to allow the 
Indians to remain on the other reserves after the expira- 
tion of the five years. He was therefore instructed, Nov. 
5, 1840, that the boundaries of all the reserves under this 
treaty ought to be marked. Aug. 23, 1844, the Indian 
office advised the General Land Office that these reserves 
ought not to be surveyed as public lands, the Indians 
having been tacitly allowed to remain thereon since the 
treaty. In 1845 the assent of the Indians was obtained 
for the extension of the public surveys over these reserves, 
but no definite boundaries were marked out for them. 
As late as June 7, 1850, the Indian Office notified the 
General Land Office that the Indians still occupied these 
tracts and the latter must not be offered for sale as public 
lands. This state of affairs, in fact, continued until other 
provision was' made by the treaty of 1855. 
1836, May 9 — ^Washington D. C. — Swan creek and Black river 
bands of the Chippewa nation residing in Michigan — (Stat, 
at Large, VII, 503). 
The Swan-creek and Black-river bands of Chippewas cede to 
the U. S. the following tracts, reserved for them by treaty 
of Nov. 17, 1807, viz: 



APPENDIX 529 

One tract of 3 miles square, or 5,760 acres, on Swan 

creek, of Lake St. Clair. 
One tract of If sections near Salt creek of said lake.— 

This tract really contained only 534 acres. See 

remarks under treaty of Nov. 17, 1807. 
One tract of one-fourth of a section at the mouth of the 

river Au Vaseau, contiguous to the preceding cession. 

This tract really contained 262.7 acres. See remarks 

under treaty of Nov. 17, 1807. 
One tract of 2 sections near the mouth of Black river, 

of the River St. Clair. — This tract really contained 

only 1,200 acres. See remarks under treaty of Nov. 

17, 1807. 
1837, Jan. 14^Detroit, Michigan — Saginaw tribe of the Chippewa 
nation — {Stat, at Large, VII, 528). 

The said tribe cede to the U. S. the following tracts of land 
lying within the boundaries of Michigan, viz : 

One tract of 8,000 acres on the river Au Sable. — When 

the public surveys were extended over this region, 

there were no Indians living on this tract, and, the 

surveyors having no one to point out to them the 

desired limits of the reserve, it was never surveyed as 

an Indian reserve. 
One tract of 2,000 acres on the Misho-wusk or Rifle river 

The Indians reser\^ed a right of residence on this tract 

for five years. 
One tract of 6,000 acres on the N. side of the river 

Kawkawling. 
One tract of 5,760 acres upon Flint river, including the 

site of Reaum's village and a place called Kishkaw- 

bawee. 
One tract of 8,000 acres on the head of the Cass (formerly 

Huron) river, at the village of Otusson. 
One island in the Saginaw bay, estimated at 1,000 acres, 

being the island called Shaingwaukokaug, on which 

Mukokoosh formerly lived. 
One tract of 2,000 acres at Nababish on the Saganaw river. 
One tract of 1,000 acres on the E. side of the Saganaw 

river. 
One tract of 640 acres at Great Bend on Cass river. 
One tract of 2,000 acres at the mouth of Point Augrais 

river. — The Indians reserved a right of residence on 

this tract for five years. 
67 



530 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

One tract of 1,000 acres on the Cass river at Menoquet's 

village. 
One tract of 10,000 acres on the Shiawassee river at 
Ketchewaundaugumink or Big Lick. — See note con- 
cerning this tract under treaty of Sept. 24, 1819. An 
error was made in copying the treaty whereby this 
reserve became confused with the one at Big Rock. 
The intention was to cede both the 3,000 acre tract 
at Ketchewaundaugumink or Big Lick and the 
10,000 acre tract at Big Rock. The language of the 
treaty cedes "10,000 acres on Shiawassee river, at 
Ketchewaundaugumink or Big Lick." To correct this 
error a supplemental article to the treaty was con- 
cluded Oct. 27, 1841. 
One tract of 6,000 acres at the Little Forks on the 

Tetabwasing river. 
One tract of 6,000 acres at the Black Bird's town on the 

Tetabwasing river. 
One tract of 40,000 acres on the W. side of the Saganaw 

river. 
One tract of 10,000 acres at Big Rock on Shiawassee 
river. — See note concerning this tract given in No. 12 
or 3,000 acre reserve at Ketchewaundaugumink or 
Big Lick. 
The said Indians shall have the right of living upon the 
tracts at the river Augrais and Musho-wusk or Rifle rivers 
on the W. side of Saganaw bay, for the term of five years, 
during which time no white man shall be allowed to settle 
on said tracts under a penalty of $500. 
The said tribe agrees to remove from the state of Michigan 
as soon as a proper location can be obtained, either W. 
of lake Superior or at such place W. of the Mississippi and 
S. W. of the Missouri river as the legislation of Congress 
may indicate. — By treaty of Dec. 20, 1837, a reserve was 
promised this tribe on Osage river, but they declined to 
remove thereto, and no tract was therefore surveyed for 
them. 
The U. S. agree to pay to said tribe as one of the parties to 
the treaty of Nov. 17, 1807, the simi of $1,000 to quiet 
their claim to two reservations of land of 2 sections each, 
lying in Oakland County, Mich., which were ceded to the 
U. S. by the Pottowattomies of St. Joseph's on Sept. 19, 
1827.— See treaty of Sept. 19, 1827. 



APPENDIX 



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APPENDIX 



535 



D 



CENSUSES OF MICHIGAN TERRITORY 

United States Census of Michigan Territory, 1830 
(Abstract in House Document No. 263, 1st sess. 22d Cong.) 



County. 


Aggregate. 


Free. 


Slaves. 


Berrien 


325 
1,356 
919 
626 
692 

1,587 
1,491 
2,413 
877 
3,187 

4,912 
1,114 
1,313 
5 
4,042 
6,781 


325 
1,354 
919 
626 
686 

1,564 
1,491 
2,413 
877 
3,187 

4,911 
1,114 
1,313 
5 
4,042 
6,781 







2 


Cass 





Chippewa 







6 




23 


Lenawee 










Michilimackinac. 





Monroe 





Oakland 


1 


St Clair 





St Joseph 





Van Buren 





Washtenaw 














Total 


31,640 


31,608 


32 







Free — White males . . 
White females. 



18,168 
13,178 



Total whites 31,346 



Colored males . . 
Colored females . 



159 
103 



Total free colored . 
Total free 



262 



31,608 



Slaves — Males. . . 
Females. 



22 
10 



Total slaves 

Total population of Michigan Territory . 



32 



31,640 



Territorial Census of Michigan, 1834 
(Blois, Gazetteer of Michigan, p. 151) 

Berrien ^'\Ta 

Branch i 7il 

Calhoun ^ ' ggQ 

Cass ' rnc 

Chippewa ^^'^ 



536 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



Jackson 1 , 865 

Kalamazoo 3 , 124 

Lenawee 7,911 

Mackinac 891 

Macomb 6 , 055 

Monroe 8 , 542 

Oakland 13,844 

St. Clair 2,244 

St. Joseph .• 3 , 168 

Washtenaw 14 , 920 

Wayne 16,638 



State Census of Michigan, 1837 
(Legislative Manual (1838), pp. 70-74) 



Allegan: 
Allegan.. 
Newark . 



621 
190 



Barry: 

Barry 512 

Total 512 

Berrien: 

Bainbridge 99 

Berrien 496 

Bertrand 1262 

Buchanan 172 

New Buffalo 199 



Branch: 

Batavia 357 

Bronson 635 

Coldwater 960 

EUzabeth 177 

Gerard 448 



Calhoun: 

Albion 773 

Athens 288 

Burlington 378 

Convis 170 

Eckford 530 

Homer 1019 

Cass: 

Calvin 201 

Howard 366 

Jefferson 395 

Lagrange 699 

Mason 224 

Ontwa 1012 



Otsego 341 

Plainfield 317 

Total 1469 



NUes 1497 

Oronoko 248 

Royalton 175 

St. Joseph 599 

Weesaw 116 

Total 4863 

Gilead 184 

Ovid 209 

Quincy 569 

Sherwood 217 

Union 260 

Total 4016 

Marengo 737 

MarshaU 1801 

Milton 1632 

Sheridan 353 

Tekonsha 278 

Total 7959 

Penn 693 

Pokagon 506 

Porter 442 

Silver Creek 108 

Vohnia 427 

M'^ayne. . .- 223 

Total i 5296 



Chippewa: 
Ste. Marie. 



Total . 



APPENDIX 



537 



Clinton: 

No returns for townships. 

Total 529 

Eaton: 

Bellevue 438 

Eaton 330 

Genesee: 

Argentine 434 

Flint 128S 

Grand Blanc 691 

Hillsdale: 

Adams . 279 

Allen 353 

Fayette 685 

Florida 156 

Litchfield 314 

Moscow 496 

Ingham: 

No returns for townships. 

Total 822 

Ionia: 

Ionia 511 

Jackson: 

No returns for townships. 

Total 8702 

Kalamazoo: 

-Brady 1292 

Comstock 1383 

Cooper 386 

Kalamazoo 1373 

Kent: 

Byroni 362 

Lapeer: 

No returns for townships. 

TotaP 2602 

Lenawee: 

Blissfield 559 

Cambridge 523 

Dover 680 

Fairfield 203 

Franklin ; 989 

Hudson 

Lenawee 1151 

Logan 1962 

Macon 1111 

Livingston: 

Byron 317 

Deerfield 369 

Genoa 361 

Green Oak 1435 

Hamburg 490 



Vermontville 145 

Total 913 

Mundy 234 

Vienna 107 

Total ^7^ 

Pittsford 550 

Reading ' ' 277 

Scipio 469 

Somerset 441 

Wheatland [[ 729 

Total 4749 

Maple 517 

Total 1028 

Pavilion 548 

Prairie Ronde 665 

Richland 720 

Total. . 6367 

Kent 1660 

Total ....,, 2022 

Medina 420 

Ogden 198 

Palmyra 898 

Raisin 1076 

RoUin 508 

Rome 826 

Seneca 431 

Tecumseh 2464 

Woodstock 541 

Total' .■ 14540 

Hartland 404 

Howell 442 

Marion 202 

Putnam 367 

Unadilla 642 

Total 5029 



538 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



Mackinac: 

Holmes 664 

Total 664 

Macomb: 

Armada 1001 

Bruce 889 

Clinton 1193 

Harrison 502 

Hickory 249 

Jefferson 523 



Monroe: 

Ash 1011 

Bedford 431 

Erie 999 

Exeter 156 

Frenchtown 1503 

Ida 200 

Lasalle 826 

Oakland: 

Addison 343 

Avon 1289 

Bloomfleld 1485 

Brandon 263 

Commerce 747 

Farmingtoii 1724 

Groveland 664 

Highland 440 

Independence 668 

Lyon 1051 

Milford 667 

Novi 1335 



Ottawa: 

No returns for townships. 

Total 628 

Saginaw: 

Saginaw 920 

Total 920 

St. Clair: 

China 603 

Clay 394 

Clyde 339 

Columbus 85 

Cottrelville 520 

St. Joseph: 

Bucks 782 

Colon 368 

Constantine 842 

Florence 440 

Flowerfield 406 



Shiawassee: 

No returns for townships. 
Total 



Lenox 234 

Macomb 736 

Orange 297 

Ray 786 

Shelby 1153 

Washmgton 1329 

Total 8892 

London 456 

Milan 270 

Monroe 2795 

RaisinvUle 614 

Summerfield 1 128 

Whiteford 257 

Total 10646 

Oakland 803 

Orion 593 

Oxford 384 

Pontiac 1700 

Rose 202 

Royal Oak 825 

Southfield 956 

Springfield 403 

Troy 1439 

Waterford 828 

West Bloomfield 1004 

White Lake 363 

Total 20176 



Ira 202 

Lexington 205 

Port Huron 824 

St. Clair 501 

Total 3673 

Leonidas 374 

Mottville 497 

Nottawa 713 

Sherman 1043 

White Pigeon 872 

Total 6337 



APPENDIX 



539 



Van Buren: 

Antwerp ' 232 

Clinch 108 

Covington 183 

Decatur 224 

Washtenaw: 

Ann Arbor 2944 

Augusta 559 

Bridgewater 923 

Dexter 596 

Freedom 795 

Lima 895 

Lodi 1063 

Lyndon 361 

Manchester 805 

Northfleld 793 



Wayne: 

Brownstown 846 

Canton 1050 

Dearborn 1317 

Detroit 8273 

Ecorse 709 

Greenfield 897 

Hamtramck 1772 

Huron. 481 



Lafayette 248 

Lawrence 202 

South Haven 65 

Total 1262 

Pitt 1208 

fealem 1354 

l^aline 1130 

Scio 1442 

Sharon 732 

Superior 1378 

Sylvan 480 

Yorl<: 1197 

Ypsilanti 2280 

Webster 832 

Total 21S17 

Livonia 1076 

Monguagon 404 

Nankin 116O 

Plymouth 2246 

Redford 1021 

Romulu.s 389 

Springwells 960 

Van Buren 799 

Total 23400 



Calhoun. . . 
Chippewa. . 
Mackinac. . . 
St. Joseph. . 
Washtenaw . 



Colored Population. 



Wayne. . 
Jackson . 
Monroe. 
Oakland . 



24 
3 
1 
4 

62 



228 

9 

35 

13 



Total . 



379 



Cass 

Chippewa . 



Indians Taxed. 

Genesee . 
Total . 



24 
1 



1. Part of this township was in Ottawa County. 

2. Exclusive of the township of Richfield. 

3. Exclusive of the township of Hudson. 



540 



ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 



E 



APPORTIONMENT OF TAXES TO BE RAISED FOR STATE PURPOSES FOR 

THE YEAR 1837, CALCULATED FROM THE ASSESSMENT RETURNS 

OF 1836 MADE BY THE SUPERVISORS AND TREASURERS OF 

EIGHTEEN COUNTIES, AND THE RESIDUE FROM THE 

RETURNS OF 1837. 

(Senate Documents, 1838, pp. 141-142) 



Counties. 


Square 
miles. 


Apportion- 
ment 
of taxes. 


*AIlegan 


840 
578 
528 
528 
720 

504 
576 
576 
720 
576 

576 
828 
735 
576 

27,684 

458 
532 
900 
1,021 
544 

935 
528 
720 
600 


$2 , 735 


Berrien 


2 , 3.56 


Branch 


534 


Cass 


1,231 


Calhoun 


1,368 


Genesee 


482 


Hillsdale 


932 


*Ionia 


1,849 


Jackson 


944 


Kalamazoo 


1,537 


Kent 


1,374 


Lapeer 


150 


*Lenawee 


3 , 145 


Livingston 


325 


*Mackinac 


191 


Macomb 


1,065 


♦Monroe 


4,304 


Oakland ' 


1,940 


*Saginaw 


2,279 


*Shiawassee 


2,076 


St. Clair 


808 


St. Joseph 


917 


Washtenaw 


2 , .532 


Wayne 


10,852 






Total 


42,783 


$45,926 







* Taxes for the counties starred were calculated from the assessment returns for 
1837. No taxes were assessed for counties not named. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS 

General 

Channing, Edward. Giiide to the sttidy and reading of American 
history, by Edward Channing, Albert Biishnell Hart and Fred- 
erick Jackson Turner. Boston, 1912. 

Griffin, A. P. C. Bibliography of Historical Societies oj the United 
States, in Annual Reports of the American Historical Association 
for 1890, 1892, 1893, 1895. 

Larned, J. N. The Literature of American History; a Bibliography. 

Boston, 1899. The best avenue to the essential literature. 

Pages 7-13 useful for State publications. Supplement issued for 

1900-1901. 
Sabin, Joseph. A Dictionary of Books relating to America from 

the Discovery to the Present Time. 20 vols., New York, 1868- 

1892. 

Winsor, Justin. Narrative and Critical History of America. 8 
vols., Boston & New York, 1884-1889. BibHographies anti- 
quated, but valuable for criticisms of the sources. Volume 
VIII, 493, contains a useful guide to travels in the United States 
during this period. 

A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress with 
Bibliographical notes. 2 vols., Washington, 1909. A list of 
maps and atlasses relating to Michigan is contained in I, 864-869. 

Writings on American History . 1902, 1903, 1906-1908, 1912-1914. 

Local History 

BowKER, R. R. (Editor). State Publications. A Provisional List 
of the Official Publications of the Several States of the United 
States from their Organization. Four parts, New York, 1899- 
1908. Vol. Ill contains a list of the Michigan publications. 

Bradford, Thomas L. The Bibliographer s Manual of American 
History, Containing an Account of all State, Territory, Town and 
County histories, relating to the United States of North America 
[etc]. Edited and revised by S. V. Hcnkels. 5 vols., Philadel- 
phia, S. V. Henkels & Co., 1907-1910. A work intended for 
dealers in second hand books. Full and accurate. 



544 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Government Publications 

Ames, J. G. List of Congressional Documents from the Fifteenth to 
the Fifty-first Congress (1817-1891). Washington, 1892. 

Catalogue of Public Documents, ''Document Catalog,'' (1893-1907). 
11 vols., Washington, 1896-1915. 

Church, Algnzo W. and Smith, Henry H. Tables showing the 
Contents of the several volumes comprising the Annals of Congress, 
Congressional Debates, Congressional Globe, Supreme Court Re- 
ports, etc., arranged by years and Congresses. Washington, 1892. 

Crandall, Check List of Public Documents. 2nd ed., Washington, 
1895. 

Ferrell, L. C. Public Documents of the United States. (In 
Library Journal, XXVI, 671). 

Greely, a. W. Public Documents of the first fourteen Congresses, 
1789-1817. Washington, 1900. 

Index to the Executive Documents and Reports of Committees of the 
House from the Twenty-second to the Twenty-fifth Congress. 
(1831-1839). Washington (1839). 

Lane, L. P. Aids in the Use of Government Publications. {In Pub- 
lications of the American Statistical Association, VII, 40-57). 

Moore, B. P. Descriptive Catalogue of Government Publications, 
1776-1881. Washington, 1885. 

Ordway, Albert. General Index of the Journals of Congress, from 
the Eleventh to Sixteenth Congress inclusive. Washington, 1883. 

United States Superintendent of Documents, Tables of and An- 
notated Index to Congressional Series of United States Public 
Documents. Washington, 1902. 

Newspapers and Periodicals 

Annotated Catalogue of Newspaper Files in the Library of the Wis- 
consin Historical Society. Madison, 1899. 

Blair, E. H. Newspaper Files in the Library of the Wisconsin 
Historical Society. Madison, 1898. 

Bradly, I. S. A bibliography of documentary and newspaper ma- 
terial for the Old Northwest. (In Annual Report of the American 
Historical Association for 1896, I, 296-319). 

Cairns, W. B. Development of American Literature from 1815 to 
1833, with especial Reference to Periodicals. (In Bulletin of the 
University of Wisconsin, Literature Series, I, 1898). 

Hudson, Frederic. Journalism in the United States, 1690-1872. 
New York, 1873. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 546 

List of Serials in Public Libraries of Chicago and Evanston. (Au- 
spices of Chicago Library Club), Chicago, 1901. 

North, S. N. D. History and Present Condition of Newspaper and 
Periodical Press of the United States. Washington, 1884. Ap- 
pendix C contains "Chronological History of the Newspaper Press 
of the United States;" appendix D, "Bound Files in the American 
Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. 

Poole, W. F. (Editor). Index to Periodical Literature, rev. 
ed. (1802-1881). Boston, 1882. Supplements for 1888, 1895", 
1897, 1903, 1908. 

Slauson, a. B. Check List of American Newspapers in the Library 
of Congress. Washington, 1908. 

Manuscripts 

Manuscript Collection in the Burton Library, Detroit. 

Manuscript Collections in the New York Public Library. (In Bul- 
letin of New York Public Library. July, 1901). 

Thwaites, R. G. Descriptive List of Manuscript Collections of the 
State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Together with reports on 
Other Collections of Manuscript Material for American History in 
Adjacent States. Madison, 1906. 

Van Tyne, C. H., and Leland, W. G. Guide to the Archives of the 
Government of the United States in Washington. 2nd ed., Wash- 
ington, 1907. 

General Secondary Works 

BiRNEY, William, fames G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis 
of the Republican Party with Some Account of Abolition Move- 
ments in the South before 1828. New York, 1890. Of value for 
conditions leading to southern immigration into southwestern 
Michigan. 

Bishop, J. L. History of American Manufacturers, 1608-1860 
[etc.], 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1868. Notice of relation of New 
England manufacturing industries to westward emigration. 

BoLLES, A. S. Industrial History of the United States, from the 
Earliest Settlement to the Present Time [etc.]. Norwich, Connec- 
ticut, 1878. An excellent general view of the material advance- 
ment of the United States. The best of the earlier works on the 
subject. • 

Brackenridge, Henry Marie, Esq. History of the late War be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain. Containing a Minute 
69 



546 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Account of the various military and naval Operations. 2nd cd., 
Baltimore, 1817. 

Brannan, John (Editor). Official Letters of the military and 
naval Officers of the United States, during the War with Great 
Britain in the Years 1812, 13, 14 and 15, [etc.]. Washington, 
1823. 

Brigham, Albert Perry. From Trail to Railway through the 
Appalachians. Boston, 1907. A good popular account of the 
routes of emigration westward. 

Bromwell, W. J. History of immigration to the United States, 
[etc.]. 1819-1855. New York, 1856. 

Brown, Charles R. The Old Northwest Territory: its Missions, 
Forts, and Trading Posts. Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1875. Con- 
tains a vakiable annotated map showing locations of the prin- 
cipal early settlements. 

Channing, Edward and Lansing, M. F. The Story of the Great 
Lakes. New York, 1909. A general account. Less suggestive 
for the earlier period. Contains a useful bibliography, pp. 
388-391, mainly of guides, gazeteers and travels. 

Cutler, Julia Perkins. Life and Times of Ephraim Cutler. 
Prepared from his Journals and Correspondence. Cincinnati, 
1890. Useful for early conditions of travel. 

Cutler, William Parker, and Cutler, Julia Perkins. Life, 
Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. 
2 vols., Cincinnati, 1888. Shows eastern forces opposed to the 
westward movement of population. 

Dewey, D. R. Financial History of the United States. New 
York, 1903. 

Digested Summary of Private Claims. 3 vols., Washington, 1853. 
A convenient aid in studying the French claims in southeastern 
Michigan. 

Donaldson, Thomas. The Public Domain, Its History, with Sta- 
tistics, with references to the National Domain, Colonization, Ac- 
quirement of Territory, the Survey, Administration and Several 
Methods of Sale and Disposition of the Public Domain of the 
United States, with Sketch of Legislative History of the Land, 
States and Territories, and References to the Land System of the 
Colonies, and also that of Several Foreign Governments. Wash- 
ington, 1884. 

Eggerling, H. W. E. Beschreibung der Vereinigten Staaten von 
Nord-Amerika. Second edition, Mannheim, 1833. A work of 
much influence on emigration to the Middle West from South- 
em Germany. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 547 

^^l' ^' ^' f ^(^'^'^■^^'^^ of ^/'^ official Accounts, in Detail, of all the 
Battles fought by Sea and Land, between the Navy and Army of the 
Umted States, and the Navy and Army of Great Britain, during 
the years 1812, 13, 14 and 15. New York, 1817. 

Goodrich S. G. Recollections of a Life Time; or, Men and Things 
1 have Seen; tn a Series of Letters to a Friend, historical bio- 
graphical, anecdotal, and descriptive. 2 vols., New York 1857 
Descriptive of the westward movement of population in' 1816- 
1817, in letter d>3. 

Hall, B. F. The early History of the North Western States em- 
bracing New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michimn Iowa and 
Wisconsin [etc.]. Buffalo, 1849. 

Hesse,_ N. Das westliche Nordamerika [etc.]. Paderborn, 1838. 
An influential summary of western conditions favorable to 
German emigrants. 

Hubbard, Bela., Memorials of a Half-Century. N. Y. and Lond., 
1887. A collection of papers bearing upon early settlement.' 
Hubbard was a Michigan pioneer of prominence, and his writ- 
ings have the authority of an intelligent eye witness. 

KoERNER, Gustav. Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten 
Staaten von Nordamerika, 1818-1848. Cincinnati, 1880. 

LoEHER, Franz. Geschichte und Zustaende der Deutschen in 
Amerika. Cincinnati, 1847. 

Mathews, Lois Kimball. The Expansion of New England, the 
spread of New England settlement and institutions to the Mississ- 
ippi River, 1620-1865. Boston and New York, 1909. 

M'Afee, Robert B. History of the late War in the Western Coun- 
try, comprising a full Account of all the Transactions in that 
Quarter, from the Commencement of Hostilities at Tippecanoe, to 
the Termination of the Contest at New Orleans on the Return of 
Peace. Lexington, Kentucky, 1816. 

Macgregor, John. Progress of America [etc.]. 2 vols., London 
1847. 

McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United 
States. New York, 1883-1900. 'Vols. IV, ch. 33, and V, ch. 45, 
contain useful general accounts of emigration to the West in 
this period. 

Meigs, William M. The Life of Thomas Hart Benton. Phila- 
delphia and London, 1904. Important for national policies in 
relation to western land questions. 

Perkins, vS. Historical Sketches of the United States, from the 
Peace of 1815 to 1830. New York, 1830. An account by a 



548 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

contemporary who was well equipped for the task. Gives a 
large national setting for the early settlement of Michigan. 

Roosevelt, Theodore. The Winning of the West. 4 vols., New 
York, 1889-1896. 

Semple, E. C. American History and its Geographic Conditions. 
Boston, 1903. 

Shea, John Gilmary. History of the Catholic Church in the United 
States. 4 vols., New York, 1886-92. Vol. Ill covers 1808-1843. 

Smith, Theodore Clarke. The Liberty and Free Soil Parties in 
the Northwest. New York, 1897. The first two chapters give 
a good general survey of the negro problems in the Old North- 
west. 

Stevens, Abel. History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
United States of America. 4 vols., New York, 1884. 

Thomson, John Lewis. Historical Sketches of the late War be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain. Philadelphia, 1816. 

Tucker, George. Progress of the United States in Population 
and Wealth in fifty Years, as exhibited by the decennial Census. 
Boston, 1843. 

Turner, F. J. Rise of the New West, 1819-1829. (American 
Nation Series). New York and London, 1906. The most 
scholarly brief account of these ten years. Contains a good 
general bibliography. 

Warden, David Baillie. A Statistical, political and historical 
Account of the U . S. of N. A.; from the period of their first Colonisa- 
tion to the Present Day. 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1819. 

Williams, Samuel. Sketches of the War between the United States 
and the British Isles: intended as a faithful History of all material 
Events from the Time of the Declaration in 1812 to and including 
the Treaty of Peace in 1815. Rutland, Vermont, 1815. 

Winchell, Alexander. The Climate of Michigan. (In Tenth 
Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Horticultural Society 
of Michigan, 1880, pp. 155-163). Lansing, 1881. 

Winchell, Alexander. The Soils and Subsoils of Michigan, 
(In Three Lectures delivered before the Michigan State Agricuh 
tural Society [etc.]). Lansing, 1865. 

Winchell, Alexander. Topography and Hydrography [of Mich- 
igan]. In Tackabury's Atlas of Michigan, Detroit, 1873, pp. 
9-14. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 549 

BIOGRAPHIES AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 

McLaughlin, Andrew C. Lewis Cass. Boston, 1891. Very 
valuable for the whole period of Michigan Territory, but especi- 
ally from 1813 to 1831. Cass was governor of the Territory in 
those years, and zealously promoted settlement. 

Smith, W. L. G. The Life and Times of Lewis Cass. New York, 
1856. Contains original material for the Cass expedition of 
1820. 

Young, Wm. T. Sketch of the Life and Public Services of General 
Lewis Cass [etc]. Detroit, 1852. 

Early History of Michigan with biographies of State officers, mem- 
bers of congress, judges and legislators. Lansing, 1888. The 
most useful list of biographies covering its period. Compiled 
by authority of the legislature. The introduction gives items 
of interest for early settlement. 

Chapman Brothers, Chicago (publishers). Branch County, 
1888; Genesee County, 1892; Hillsdale County, 1888; Ingham 
and Livingston Counties, 1891; Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 
1891; Jackson County, 1890; Kalamazoo, Allegan and Van 
Buren Counties, 1892; Lenawee County, 1888; Oakland County, 
1891. 

Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago (publishers). Berrien 
and Cass Counties, 1893; Muskegon and Ottawa Counties, 1893; 
Oakland County, 1903; Saginaw and Bay Counties, 1892; 
Washtenaw County, 1891. 

A. W. BowEN AND Co., Logansport, Indiana (publishers). Kent 
County, 1900. Emphasis on Grand Rapids. 

Knapp, J. I. and Bonner, R. I. Illustrated History and Bio- 
graphical Record of Lenawee County. Adrian, Michigan, 1903. 

Whitney, W. A. and Bonner, I. A. Historical and Biographical 
Record of Lenawee County. 2 vols., Adrian, Michigan, 1879- 
1880. 

histories of MICHIGAN 

Campbell, James V. Outlines of the Political History of Michigan. 
Detroit, 1876. 

CooLEY, Thomas M. Michigan, a History of Governments. Boston, 
and N. Y., 1905. The best general account of the history of 
Michigan. Much general information about settlements given. 

Farmer, Silas. The History of Detroit and Michigan [etc.]. 2 
vols., Detroit, 1884. 2nd ed. 1890 ; shghtly enlarged to inckide 
events to date. A very full and accurate account of Michigan 



550 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Territory. The second volume is entirely biographical. The 
first volmne contains in the text many references to the 
sources, especially to contemporary newspapers. 

Lanman, James H. History o'j Michigan, Civil and Topographical, 
in a Compendious Form; with a View of the Surrounding Lakes. 
With a Map. New York, 1839. The author was a Michigan 
pioneer, contemporary with the latter part of this period. 
Especially valuable for contemporary physiographic conditions 
of settlement. 

Sheldon (Mrs.) E. M. The Early History of Michigan, from the 
first Settlement to 1815. New York, 1856. Mainly on the 
French period. Useful for settlement about Detroit from 1805 
to 1815. 

Utley, Henry M., Cutcheon, Byron M. and Burton, Clar- 
ence M. Michigan as a Province, Territory and State, the 
Twenty-Sixth Member of the Federal Union. New York, 1906. 

county and other local histories 

Interest in systematically collecting and publishing the records 
of Michigan's local history appears to have begun about the time 
of the centennial of 1876. The material for the first volume of 
the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections was compiled in 
1874-1876, and published in 1877. The opportunity for county 
histories afforded by this impiilse was seized by three Philadelphia 
firms, L. H. Everts and Co., Everts and Abbott, and D. W. En- 
sign and Co., and a little later by Chicago fimis, principally C. C. 
Chapman and Co. The wave of interest lasted from 1877 to 
about 1882, and resulted in the production of almost an even 
score of volumes for the counties south of Saginaw Bay. It is 
noteworthy that among these the older counties of Wayne and 
Monroe were not represented. The first county histories were 
those of Oakland, Calhoun, and St. Joseph counties. They were 
exceptionally full in pertinent details for early settlement, and the 
same may be said of those for Branch, Genesee, Hillsdale and 
Kalamazoo. These obviously furnished much of the data used 
in the later and more carefully constructed county histories. 
Some of the earlier histories, however, are especially poor. In 
this class are those for Kent, Saginaw and Washtenaw counties 
published by C. C. Chapman and Co. They give data of com- 
paratively little value for settlement, garbling the papers furnished 
by pioneers, and abounding in appealing generalities. 

A second wave of interest in Michigan county history is shown 
by volumes appearing in the years 1888-1892. These came from 



RIBLIOGRAPHY 551 

two Chicago firms, Chapman Brothers and the Biographical Pub- 
Hshing Co., and differed from the earlier output by being dis- 
tinctly biographical in character. Many of them bore names 
beginning "Portrait and Biographical Album." They are of 
much value in tracing the sources of population. 

Since 1905, two Chicago publishing companies have appeared 
in this field, one of which, the Lewis Publishing Co., is sponsor- 
ing work of a much higher grade than has been done hitherto. 
The title of these volumes begins "The Twentieth Century His- 
tory." They lay the chief emphasis upon recent years, and 
hence are not so useful for data about early settlement as the 
older histories. As a whole they do not contribute much new 
data on the earlier period, but are better organized. 

Almost without exception, the county histories give a large 
section of their space to biographical sketches of pioneers and 
present day business men. Since the volumes are sold by sub- 
scription, the subjects of these sketches are in the main those 
who can afford to buy the volume. It thus happens that promi- 
nent early pioneers who happen not to have descendents living 
in the county, get scant treatment. Without exception these 
volimies are of the unwieldy folio or quarto size, with heavy 
leather binding, thick paper, and very poor indexes. Their gen- 
erally poor quality and exhorbitant prices have made them justly 
the object of much ridicule and contempt among serious workers. 
Yet for many phases of early settlement they contain the main 
sources of infonnation, poor as it may be. With proper checking 
they may be made to yield light on some problems, such as the 
founding of villages, routes of travel, prejudices of settlers, sources 
of population and conditions of pioneer life. 

For the present purpose it is thought most useful tp arrange 
these books chronologically under the names of their pubhshers. 
Only those used by the author in this work are given . 

L. H. Everts and Co., Philadelphia. 

Calhoun County, 1877. 

Oakland County, 1877. 

St. Joseph County, 1877. 
Everts and Abbott, Philadelphia. ^ 

Branch County, 1879. 

Genesee County, 1879. 

Hillsdale County, 1879. 

Kalamazoo County, 1880. 
D. W. Ensign and Co., Philadelphia. 

Allegan and Barrj' Counties, 1880. 



552 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Berrien and Van Buren Counties, 1880. 

Ingham and Eaton Counties, 1880. 

Ionia and Montcalm Counties, 1881. 

Shiawassee and CHnton Counties, 1880. 
C. C. Chapman and Co., Chicago. 

Kent County, 1881, 

Saginaw County, 1881. 

Washtenaw County, 1881. 
Inter-State Publishing Co., Chicago. 

Jackson County, 1881. 
Waterman, Watkins and Co., Chicago. 

Cass County, 1882. 
M. A. Leeson and Co., Chicago. 

Macomb County, 1882. 
H. R. Page and Co., Chicago. 

Muskegon and Ottawa Counties, 1882. 
A. T. Andreas and Co., Chicago. 

. St. Clair County, 1883. 
Munsell and Co., New York. 

Monroe County, 1890. 
S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago. 

Macomb County, 1905. 

Washtenaw County, 1906. 
The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago. 

Allegan County. 

Berrien County. 

Branch County. 

Calhoun County. 

Cass County. 

Detroit. 

Monroe County. 

Oakland County. 

Saint Clair County. 

Saint Joseph County. 

Van Buren County. 

The following histories of cities or sections of the State were 
published mainly in Michigan : 

Baxter, Albert. History of the City of Grand Rapids, Michi- 
gan. New York, 1891. The Appendix contains a brief history 
of Lowell, Kent County. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 553 

Carlisle, Fred (Compiler). Chronography of Notable Events in 
the History of the Northwest Territory and Wayne County. De- 
troit, 1890. 

CowLES, Albert E. Past and Present of the City of Lansing and 
Ingham County, Michigan. Lansing, Michigan, 1904. 

Everett, Franklin. Memorials of the Grand River Valley. 
Chicago, 1878. This work was done under the auspices of the 
Old Residents' Association of the Grand River Valley (see pre- 
face), and is one of the chief sources for local history in that 
region. 

Goss, DwiGHT. History of Grand Rapids and its Industries. 2 
vols., Chicago, 1906. 

HoGABOAM, James J. The Bean Creek Valley. Incidents of its 
early settlement. Collected from the memories of its earliest set- 
tlers now living [etc.]. Hudson, Michigan, 1876. 

Lane, William A. Homer and its Pioneers, and its Business Men 
of Today. Homer, Michigan, 1883. 

Rogers, Howard S. History of Cass County from 1825 to 1875. 
Cassopolis, Michigan, 1875. 

Ross, R. B. and Catlin, G. B. Landmarks of Wayne County and 
Detroit. Revised by C. M. Burton, Detroit, 1898. 

CONTEMPORARY NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, ETC. 

American Annual Register. Philadelphia, 1825-1833. 

Albany Argus. 1813 + . 

Albany Cultivator. 1834+ . 

American Quarterly Review. Philadelphia, 1827-1837. 

Boston Daily Advertiser. 1813 + . 

Boston Patriot. 1809+ . 

Boston W^eekly Messenger. 1811 + . 

Charleston Mercury. 1822 + . 

The Christian Examiner. Boston, 1824+ . 

Christian Monthly Spectator. 1819-1828. 

Cincinnati Gazette. 1806+ . 

Columbian Centinel. Boston, 1790+. 

Connecticut C our ant. Hartford, 1764+ . 

Connecticut fournal and New Haven Post Boy. 1767-1835. 

Gazette of the United States . New York and Philadelphia. 1 789 + . 

Genesee Farmer. New York, 1831 + . 



554 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Historical Register of the United States. Philadelphia, 1814-16. 

Independent Chronicle. Boston, 1789-1831. 

National Gazette. Philadelphia, 1820-|-. 

National Intelligencer. Washington, 1800 + . 

New England Palladium. Boston, 1801-1835. 

New Hampshire Gazette. Portsmouth, 1756-|-. 

New York Evening Post. 1801 + . 

New York Herald. 1802 + . 

Niles' Weekly Register. Baltimore, 1811 + . Especially valuable 

for economic conditions as affected by the changing relations 

between the East and the West. 
North American Review. New York, 1815 + . 
Providence Gazette and Daily Journal. 1762 + . 
Pennsylvania Gazette. Philadelphia, 1728+ . 
The Pittsburgh Commonwealth. 1805-1809. Special attention to 

Michigan news in the first years of Michigan as a separate 

Territory. 
Salem Gazette. 1774+ . 

EARLY MICHIGAN NEWSPAPERS 

Detroit Courier. December 30, 1830 + . 

Detroit Gazette. 1817-1830. The most valuable newspaper for 
historical material on Michigan in this period. Democratic. 

Detroit Journal. Published 1829-1830 as The Northwestern Journal 
and from 1830-1833 as The Detroit Journal and Michigan Ad- 
vertiser. Originated with friends of John Quincy Adams. 

Emigrant. Ann Arbor, 1829. Name changed to The Western 
Emigrant in 1830, and the paper became anti-Masonic. 

Kalamazoo Gazette. Kalamazoo, 1834+ . Democratic. 

Michigan Sentinel. Monroe, 1825 + . Democratic. 

Michigan Statesman. White Pigeon, St. Joseph County, 1833+ , 
Democratic. Shortly afterwards removed to Kalamazoo. 

Lenawee County Republican and Adrian Gazette. Adrian, October 
15, 1834+ . Name changed to The Watchtower in 1835. A few 
scattered copies of the first issues preserved in Adrian Public 
Library. 

Michigan Herald. Detroit, May 10, 1825 to April 30, 1829. 
Whig organ. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 555 

Monroe Journal and Michigan Inquirer. Monroe, 1834+ . Dis- 
continued the following year. 

Oakland County Chronicle. Pontiac, June 25, 1830 to May, 1831. 
Removed to Detroit in 1831 and became The Detroit Free Press 
and Michigan Intelligencer. First issued at Detroit May 5, 
1831. Name "Michigan Intelligencer" dropped in 1832. 

ARTICLES IN MAGAZINES 

Mayo, A. D. "Western Emigration and Western Character," in 
Christian Examiner, LXXXII, 265-282. New York, 1867. 

Shea, John Gilmary. "The Canadian Element in the United 
States," in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, October 
1879. 

Turner, F J. "The Middle West," in International Monthly 
IV, 794-820. 

Turner, F. J. "The Colonization of the West," in American His- 
torical Review, XI, 303-327. An excellent general treatment of 
pioneering in the Middle West. The foot notes contain valuable 
bibliographical aid. 

Turner, F. J. "The Problem of the West," in the Atlantic 
Monthly, LXXVIII, 289-297. 

Turner, F. J. "Contributions of the West to American De- 
mocracy," in the Atlantic Monthly, XCI, 83-96. 

"European Emigration to the United States," in Edinburgh Re- 
view. July, 1854. 

"German Emigration," in Littell's Living Age, October, 1846. 
"The Revolutions of Etirope, 1830-1890," in the North American 
Review, July, 1848. 

"Ireland in 1834," in the Dublin University Magazine, January, 
1835. 

TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION 

Light is reflected upon specific conditions of localities by tra- 
velers' accounts. Catition is needed to guard against exaggera- 
tions, inaccuracies and prejudices. English travelers were prone 
to speak slightingly of conditions in the West. (See the protest 
of Robert Walsh, An Appeal from the Judgment of Great Britain 
respecting the United States, Philadelphia, 1819; also McMaster, 
History of the People of the United States, V, .Ch. 48). Some 
travels were made to gather information for emigrants, to serve 
as a basis for gazetteers and guides. Accounts of travels published 
abroad had influence on foreign immigration to the localities de- 
scribed. These became very nmiierous after about 1835. 



556 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Abdy, E. S. Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States 
of North America, 1833-1834. 3 vols., London, 1835. 

Americans as they are; described in a Tour through the Valley of the 
Mississippi. London, 1828. 

BoARDMAN, J. America and the Americans [etc.]. London, 1833. 

Candler, Isaac. A Summary View of America. London, 1824. 

Chevalier, Michael. Society, Manners and Politics in the 
United States, being a Series of Letters on North America. 
[January, 1834 to October, 1835]. Boston, 1839. This was a 
translation from the third Paris edition. Gives an excellent 
summary of the social conditions as they were at the close of 
this period. 

CoRBETT, William. A Years Residence, in the United States of 
America. 3rd ed., London, 1828. Unfavorable to emigration 
to the United States. 

Cuming, Fortescue. Sketch of a Tour to the Western Country 

. . . commenced at Philadelphia in the Winter of 1807 and con- 
cluded in 1809. Pittsburg, 1810. 

Darby, William. A Tour from the City of New York to Detroit, 
in Michigan Territory, made between the 2nd of May and the 
22nd of September, 1818. New York, 1819. 

De Rocs, F. F. Personal Narrative of Travels in the United States 
and Canada in 1826 [etc.]. London, 1827. 

DuDEN, Gottfried. Bericht ueber eine Reise nach den westlichen 
Staaten Nordamerika's und einen mehrjaehrigen Aufenthalt am 
Missouri {in den Jahren, 1824-1827), in Beziig auf Auswanderung 
und Uebervoelkerung. 2nd ed., Bonn, 1834. 

Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Travels through North Amer- 
ica during the Years 1825 and 1826 [etc.]. Philadelphia, 1828. 

Evans, Estwick. A Pedestrious Tour of Four Thousand Miles 
through the Western States and Territories, during the Winter 
and Spring of 1818 [etc.]. Concord, New Hampshire, 1819. In 
Thwaites' Early Western Travels, VIII, 90-364. Valuable for 
specific knowledge of settlement along the southeastern shore 
of Michigan at that date. The journey from Monroe to De- 
troit was made on foot. 

Faux, W. Memorable Days in America: being a Journal of a 
Tour to the United States, principally undertaken to ascertain, by 
positive Evidence, the Condition and probable Prospects of British 
Emigrants [etc.]. London, 1823. ^ 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 557 

Fearon, H. B. Sketches of America. A Narrative of a Journey 

of five thousand Miles through the eastern and western states of 

America [etc.]. Third edition, London, 1819. 
FiDLER, Isaac. Observations on Professions, Literature, Manners, 

and Emigration in the United States and Canada. New York' 

1833. 

Finch, John. Travels in the United States of America and Canada 
[etc.]. London, 1833. Canadians in the region of the Great 
Lakes. 

Fowler, J. Journal of a Tour in the State of New York in the 

year 1830 [etc.]. London, 1831. 
Hall, Basil. Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 

1828 [etc.]. 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1829. 
Hall, James. Letters from the West: containing Sketches of 

Scenery, Manners, and Customs; and Anecdotes connected with 

the first Settlements of the Western Sections of the United States. 

London, 1828. 

Harding, Benj. Tours through the Western Country, A. D. 1818 
and 1819. New London, 1819. 

Harris, William Tell. Remarks made during a Tour through 
the United States of America in the years 1817, 1818 and 1819. 

Hecke, J. Val. Reise durch die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord 
Amerika in den Jahren 1818 and 1819 [etc.]. 2 vols., Berlin, 
1820-21. 

Hinsdale, Burke Aaron. The Old Northwest [etc.]. New York, 
1888. Second edition, New York, 1899. Valuable introduc- 
tion to the study of Michigan in this period. 

Hodgson, Adam. Remarks during a Journey through North 
America in the years 1819-21, in a Series of Letters; with an 
Appendix, containing an Account of several of the Indian Tribes, 
and the principal Missionary Stations [etc.]. New York, 1823. 

Hoffman, C. F. A Winter in the West. 2 vols.. New York, 
1835. Acute observations by an apparently experienced traveler, 
written very entertainingly in the form of letters from various 
points in the West. Volume I is of much value for Michigan 
in the years 1833-1834. 

Holmes, Isaac. An account of the United States of America, 
derived from actual Observation, during a Residence of four Years 
in that Republic: including original Communications. London, 
1823. 

Latrobe, C. J. The Rambler in North America [etc.]. 2 vols., 
New York, 1833. 



558 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Lindsay, W. View of America [etc.]. Hawick, 1824. 
McKenney, Thomas L. Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes [etc.]. 

Baltimore, 1827. Contains items of interest about Detroit and 

the St. Clair settlements. 
Martineau, Harriet. Society in America 1834-1836. 3 vols., 

London, 1837. 
Martineau, Harriet. Retrospect of Western Travel. 2 vols., 

New York, 1838. 
MuRAT, Achille. America and the Americans. New York, 1849. 

Apparently written about 1830. Good for a general survey 

of social and economic conditions in the West. 
Neilson, p. Recollections of a Six Year's Residence in the United 

States of America. Glasgow, 1830. 
Ogden, George W. Letters from the West. New Bedford, 1823. 

Reprinted in Thwaites, Early Western Travels, XIX. 
Palmer, John, fournal of Travels in the United States of North 

America and in Lower Canada, performed in the year 1817. 

London, 1818. 
Rafinesque, C. S. Travels and Researches in North America 

[etc.]. Philadelphia, 1836. 
Schoolcraft, Henry R. Summary Narrative of an exploratory 

Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi River, in 1820; 

resumed and completed by the Discovery of its Origin in Itaska 

Lake, in 1832. Philadelphia, 1855. 
Shirreff, p. Tour through North America [etc.]. Edinburgh, 

1835. 
Stuart, J. Three Years in North America. 2 vols., New York, 

1833. 
Thwaites, R. G. (Editor). Early Western Travels, 1748-1846. 

32 vols., Cleveland, Ohio, 1904-1907. 
Wright, John S. Letters from the West; or a Caution to Emi- 
grants. Salem, New York, 1819. ' 

travelers' guides 

Cobbett, William. The Emigrant's Guide [etc.]. London, 1830. 

Collins, S. H. The Emigrant's Guide to and Description of the 
United States of America. Hull, 1830. 

Dana, E. Geographical Sketches of the Western Country: designed 
for Emigrants and Settlers: being the Result of extensive Re- 
searches and Remarks. To which is added a Summary of all the 
most interesting Matters on the Subject [etc.]. Cincinnati, 1819. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 559 

Darby, Wm. The Emigrant's Guide to the Western and South- 
western States and Territories [etc.]. With map. N. Y., 1817. 

Farmer, John. The Emigrants' Guide, or Pocket Gazetteer of the 
Surveyed Part of Michigan. Albany, New York, 1830. An 
accurate, and for that day quite complete, guide to the Terri- 
tory. Sold with map and separately. A new edition appeared 
in 1831, and a much enlarged edition in 1836. Very valuable. 

Flint, James. Letters From America, containing Observations on 
the Climate and Agrictdture of the western States, the Manners 
of the People, and the Prospects of Emigrants, etc., etc. Edin- 
burgh, 1822. 

Hewett, D. The American Traveller [etc.]. Washington, 1825. 

Melish, John. Information and Advice to Emigrants to the 
United States; and from the Eastern to the Western States: illus- 
trated by a Map of the United States and a Chart of the Atlantic 
Ocean. Philadelphia, 1819. Among the most favorable of the 
early references to Michigan. 

Melish, John. The Traveller's Directory through the United 
States; containing a Description of all the Principal Roads through 
the United States, with copious Remarks on the Rivers and other 
Objects [etc.]. New York, 1825. Contains valuable maps and 
diagrams of routes of travel, with valuable notes. Earlier edi- 
tions appeared in 1815, 1819 and 1822. 

Morse, Jedidiah and Morse, Richard C. The Traveller's Guide; 
or, Pocket Gazetteer of the United States; extracted from the latest 
Edition of Morse's Universal Gazetteer [etc.]. Second edition; 
enlarged, revised and corrected. New Haven, 1826. Good map 
of United States in colors. Favorable to the eastern part of 
Michigan, but misrepresents the country west of the dividing 
ridge. 

Peck, Rev. John Mason. A Guide for Emigrants, containing 
Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the adjacent parts. Boston, 
1831. Acute observations, well written. 

gazetteers, directories, geographical and statistical works 

Amphlett, William. Emigrants' Directory of the Western States 
of North America. London, 1819. 

Blois, John T. Gazetteer of the State of Michigan, in Three parts, 
containing a General View of the State, a Description of the Face 
of the Country, Soil, Productions, Public Lands, Internal Im- 
provements, Commerce, Government, Climate, Education, Religious 
Denominations, Population, Antiquities, etc., etc. With a Succinct 



560 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

History of the State, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. 
Also a particular description of the Counties, Towns, Villages, 
Post Offices, Water Courses, Lakes, Prairies, etc., alphabetically 
arranged; with an Appendix, containing the Usual Statistical 
Tables, and a Directory for Emigrants, etc. Detroit and New 
York, 1839. A very valuable source for Michigan. Contains 
the Territorial census of 1834. 

Blowe, D. Geographical, Commerical and Agricultural View of 
the United States. Liverpool, 1820. 

Bristed, John. Resources of the United States of America. ■ New 
York, 1818. 

Brown, Samuel R. The Western Gazetteer; or. Emigrant's Direc- 
tory, containing a geographical Description of the Western States 
and Territories [etc.]. Auburn, New York, 1817. Apparently 
based upon first-hand knowledge. The eighteen pages devoted 
to Michigan Territory are fairly accurate. 

Clark, Charles F. (Compiler and publisher). Michigan State 
Gazetteer and Business Directory for 1863-4, embracing Historical 
and Descriptive Sketches of all the Cities, Towns and Villages 
throughout the State, together with Classified Lists of all Profes- 
sions, Trades and Pursuits, Names of all Organized Companies, 
State and County Officers, and full information regarding the 
Mercantile and Manufacturing Interests of the State. 2nd ed., 
Detroit, 1863. 

Daily Advertiser Directory for the City of Detroit for the year 1850. 
Detroit, 1850. Contains items on early settlement. 

Davenport, Bishop. A New Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary 
of North America and the West Indies [etc.]. Baltimore, 1832. 
Interesting rather for what it does not say about Michigan, at 
a date fairly well advanced. 

Flint, Timothy. Condensed Geography and History of the Western 
States. 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1828. 

Flint, Timothy. The History and Geography of the Mississippi 
Valley. 2nd ed., 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1832. Very unreliable for 
Michigan. Flattering presentation of its advantages for the 
immigrant, in I, 436-7. Main attention to the Great Lakes and 
principal interior rivers. 

Geographical, Historical, Commercial and Agricultural View of the 
United States of America; forming a complete Emigrant's Direc- 
tory through every part of the Republic [etc.]. London, 1820. 
Apparently an expansion of Brown's Western Gazetteer. In- 
tended to induce English emigrants to settle in the West. 

Indiana Gazetteer. 2nd ed., Indianapolis, 1833. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 561 

KiLBOURNE, John. Ohio Gazetteer. Columbus, 1819. 

Kingdom, William, Jr. America and the British Colonies, an ab- 
stract of all the most useful Information relative to the United 
States of America [etc.]. London, 1820. Good advice to in- 
tending emigrants. Not favorable to the West. 

Mackenzie, E. An historical, topographical, and descriptive View 
of the United States of America [etc.]. New-Castle-upon-Tvne 
1819. ^ ^ ' 

Mac Cabe, Julius P. Bolivar. Directory of the City of Detroit, 
with its Environs, and Register of Michigan, for the Year 1837. 
Containing an Epitomized History of Detroit; an Alphabetical 
List of its Citizens; a Classification of Professions and Principal 
Trades in the City; Every Information Relative to Offices and 
Officers, to Churches, Associations and Institutions, to Shipping, 
Steam Boats, Stages, etc. — also, a List of the Officers of the United 
States Government; the Names of the Governor, and Members of 
the Legislature of Michigan, and County Officers of the State. 
etc., etc., etc. Detroit, 1845. Contains many items of in- 
terest for settlement. 

Melish, John. A geographical Description of the United States, 
with the contiguoiis British and Spanish Possessions. Phila- 
delphia, 1816. An expanded edition (1822) with slightly altered 
title, contains 491 pages, and shows Michigan rising in impor- 
tance. There were other editions of this work. 

Melish, John. A Statistical View of the United States, containing 
a geographical Description of the United States and of each State 
and Territory; with topographical Tables of the Coimties, Towns, 
Population, etc. New York, 1825. Of value for population of 
Michigan counties. 

Spafford, Horatio Gates. A Gazetteer of the State of New York: 
embracing an ample Survey and Description of its Counties, 
Towns, Cities, Villages, Canals [etc.]. With a new Map, and 
Profiles of the Canals. Albany, 1824. 

Wellings, James H. Directory of the City of Detroit; and Register 
of Michigan, for the year 1845. Containing An Epitomized 
History of Detroit; an Alphabetical List of its Citizens; a List of 
the officers of the Municipal Government, the officers of the 
United States, and the State Officers and Members of the Legis- 
lature of Michigan; also, every information relative to the time and 
place at which the several Courts sit throughout the State; with a 
List of Churches, Associations, Institutions, County Officers, etc., 
etc., etc. Detroit, 1845. 
71 



662 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

NATIONAL AND STATE PUBLICATIONS 

American State Papers. Documents, legislative and executive. 38 
vols., Washington, 1832-1861. Extend from 1789 to 1838 
inclusive. 

Annals of the Congress of the United States. 42 vols., Washington, 
1834-1856. Extend from 1789 to 1824 inclusive. 

Census of the State of Michigan, 1884. 2 vols., Lansing, 1886. 
Contains an account of the early censuses taken under the 
auspices of the Territory and State. 

Curtis, B. R. Reports of .Decisions in the Supreme Court of the 
United States. With notes and a Digest. 23 vols., Boston, 1855. 
Condensed reports, forming a convenient approach to the older 
and complete reports. 

Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
Part 2, containing Indian Land Cessions in the United States. 
Washington, 1899, pp. 521-997. Valuable plates. Most con- 
venient source f or i nf ormation on this subject. 

Executive Documents. Washington, 1830 + ■ These include //om5^ 
Documents from 1817 forward. 

House Reports of Committees. Washington, 1819+ . 

Laws of the Territory of Michigan. 4 vols., Lansing, 1871-1884. 
L Laws adopted by the Governors and Judges, comprising the 
"Woodward Code" of 1805, the "Cass Code" of 1816, the code 
of laws published in 1821, laws compiled by the Legislative 
Board in 1824, laws published by the Legislative Council in 
1825, Executive Acts, 1815-1822, and some Acts of Congress 
affecting Michigan Territory. II. "Embracing all Laws en- 
acted by the Legislative Authority of the Territory, from 1806 
to 1830, which are not included in Vol. I." III. "Embracing 
the Acts and Resolutions of the Legislative Council for the 
Years 1830, '31, '32 '33, '34, '35." IV. "Supplemental, em- 
bracing all Laws enacted by the Legislative Authority of the 
Territory, not printed in Vols. I, II, and III, Territorial Laws, 
being Acts from 1806 to 1811, and also those Passed at the 
Special Session of the 6th Legislative Council, August 17th-25th, 
1835." 

McLaughlin, A. C. History of Higher Education in Michigan. 
Bureat't of Education Circidar of Information, No. 4, 1891. 
Washington, 1891. 
North, S. N. D. A Century of Population and Growth. Wash- 
ington, 1909. Useful for a general statement of comparative 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 563 

growth of eastern and western sections based upon the federal 
census. 

Register of Debates in Congress. 29 vols., Washmgton, 1825-1837. 

Usually cited as Congressional Debates. 
Senate Documents. Washington, 1817+ . 

Statutes at Large of the United States of America. 11 vols Wac;h- 
ington, 1873-1895. 

Twelfth Census, Statistical Atlas. 

United States Census reports. 1810-1830. 

PUBLICATIONS OF HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES 

Adams, Romanzo. "Agriculture in Michigan. A Sketch," in 
Publications of the Michigan Political Science Association ' HI 
163-202. 

Allen, William Francis. "The Place of the Northwest in 
general history," in Papers of the American Historical Associa- 
tion, III, 329-348. 

Ball, S. "Buffalo in 1825." Buffalo Hist. Soc. Pub., I, 139-150. 
Reprinted from a pamphlet published in that year. Useful 
for comparison of Buffalo and Detroit at that date. 

Chaney, Henry A., "Alien Suffrage in Michigan," in Publica- 
tions of the Michigan Political Science Association, IV, 130-139. 
Of interest for the influence of the elective franchise upon for- 
eign immigration to Michigan. Deals mainly with the later 
period. 

Haight, Walter C. "The Ordinance of 1787," in Publications of 
the Michigan Political Science Association, II, 343-402. Im 
portant for questions concerning the Negro in Michigan. 

Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan, comprising a series 
of discourses delivered before the historical society of Michigan, 
and other interesting papers relative to the Territory. Detroit, 
1834. 

Hubbard, George D. "A Case of geographical Influence upon 
human Affairs," in Bulletin of the American Geographical 
Society, XXXVI, No. 3, 145-157. New York, 1904. Effects of 
glaciation. 

Keith, Hannah Emily. "An Historical Sketch of Internal Im- 
provements in Michigan, 1836-1846," in Publications of the 
Michigan Political Science Association, IV, 1-48. 

Levi, Mrs. K. E. "Geographical Origin of German Immigration 
to Wisconsin," in Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIV, 341-393. 



564 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

McLaughlin, A. C. "The Influence of Governor Cass on the 
Development of the Northwest," in Papers of the American His- 
torical Association, III, 311-327. 

Storrow, Samuel A. "The Northwest in 1817," in Wisconsin 
Historical Collections, VI, 154-187. A letter dated December 
1, 1817, addressed to Major-General Brown. Suggestive for 
general conditions in the Great Lakes region. 

Thwaites, R. G. "Story of the Black Hawk War," in Wisconsin 
Historical Collections, XII, 217-265. 

Turner, Frederick Jackson. "The Significance of the Frontier 
in American History," in Report of the American Historical 
Association, 1893, pp. 199-227. 

Walker, Captain A. "Early Days on the Lakes," in Buffalo 
Historical Society Publications, V, 287-318. 

pioneer diaries, reminiscences, papers, addresses, etc., 

published in the michigan pioneer and historical 

collections, (38 vols. lansing, michigan, 

1874-1912) 

These papers are so brief and their titles furnish such obvious 
indications of their authority that only in particular cases is it 
useful to add explanations. Very many of the articles are ex- 
tracts from newspaper columns of comparatively recent date. 
Many of them were prepared to be read before State or local 
pioneer societies. The papers written by persons who partici- 
pated in the events they narrate are of much value for the found- 
ing of settlements, though it is to be regretted that reminiscences 
rather than diaries of these events predominate. 

Physiography, Climate, Fauna and Flora 

Ball, Hon. John. Physical Geography of Kent County. M. P. 
H. C, I, 214-217. By an early pioneer. Valuable for con- 
temporary physical conditions of settlement. 

TiBBiTS, J. S. Wild Animals of Wayne County. M. P. H. C, I, 
403-406. "Read before the Detroit Pioneer Society, March 23, 
1873." Account of animals contemporary with early settle- 
ment. 

Hubbard, Bela, Esq. The Climate of Detroit. M. P. H. C, III, 
67-83. A summary of conclusions in pp. 82-83. 

River Raisin. Anon. M. P. H. C, VII, 548-550. From the 
Detroit Gazette, August 2, 1822. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 565 

Wheeler, Charles S. The Early Flora and Fauna of Michigan. 
M. P. H. C, XXXII, 354-360. 

Health 

Van Buren, A. D. P. The Fever and Ague. "Michigan Rash." 
Mosquitoes. The Old Pioneers' Foes. M. P. H. C, V, 300-304. 

Boundaries 

NoRVELL, Col. Freeman. The History and Times of the Hon. 

John Norvell M. P. H. C, III, 140-148. Useful for the Ohio 

boundary dispute. 
SouLE, Anna May, M. L. The Southern and Western Boundaries 

of Michigan . M . P . H . C . , XXVI 1 , 346-390 . Best work on this 

subject. 
Stuart, L. G. Verdict for Michigan. How the Upper Peninsula 

became a part of_ Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 390-403. 

Ohio boundary dispute. 

Indians of Michigan — Tribes, Missions, Treaties, and Relations 

with Settlers 

Heydenburk, Martin. Indian Missions. M. P. H. C, III, 
154-156. Protestant missions, principally at Detroit and Mack- 
inac. Suggests relations between the missions and agricultural 
settlement. 

Williams, Hon. Ephraim S. The Treaty of Saginaw in the year 
1819. M. P. H. C, VII, 262-270. 

Copley, Hon. A. B. The Pottawattomies. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
256-267. An account of the Indians of Southwestern Michigan, 
and their relations with settlers. 

Felch, [Governor] Alpheus. The Indians of Michigan and the 
Cession of their Lands to the United States by Treaties. M. P. 
H. C, XXVI, 274-297. Contains colored map of Indian ces- 
sions in Michigan, opposite p. 275. 

Webber, William L. Indian Cession of 1819, made by the Treaty 
of Saginaw. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 517-534. 

Little, Frank. Early Recollections of the Indians about Gull 
Prairie. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 330-338. 

Brunson, Mrs. Catherine Calkins. A Sketch of Pioneer Life 
Among the Indians. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 161-163. 

Thorpe, Calvin J. Pioneer and Aborigine. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 
467-478. 



566 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Van Buren, A. D. P. Story of the Baw Beese Indians. M. P. H. 

C, XXVIII, 530-533. Hillsdale County. 
OsBAND, Melvin D. The Michigan Indians. M. P. H. C, 

XXIX, 697-709. Relations with whites. 
Goss, DwiGHT. The Indians of the Grand River Valley. M. P. 

H. C, XXX, 172-190. 
Goodyear, Henry A. Indians of Barry County. M. P. H. C., 

XXXV, 637-643. 

Black Hawk War 

Little, Henry. A History of the Black Haivk War of 1832. 
M. P. H..C., V, 152-178. Special reference to its effect on 
Michigan settlement. 

Buckner, Lieut. Col. E. A brief history of the war with the Sac 
and Fox Indians in Illinois and Michigan, in 1832, with twenty- 
one letters and orders. M. P. H. C, XII, 424-436. 

The Black Hawk War. M. P. H. C, XXXI, 313-471. "Papers 
of Gen. J. R. Williams, collected and arranged by C. M. Bur- 
ton." Williams commanded the Michigan militia called out 
at that time. 

The French-Canadians in Michigan — Missions, Manners, Customs, 
Settlements, Land Claims, and Relations with American 

Settlers 

Witherell, Judge B. F. H. Sketches of Detroiters by fudge 
Witherell— Inhabitants of Detroit in 1806. M. P. H. C., I, 
344B-345. "From the Detroit Post of May 9th, 1876." 

Hubbard, Bela. The Early Colonization of Detroit. M. P. H. C, 
I, 347-368. Address, 1872. An excellent summary of early 
conditions among the French at Detroit by an early pioneer. 

Girardin, J. A. Life and Times of Father Gabriel Richard. M. 
P. H. C, I, 481-495. 

Campbell, James V. Early French Settlements in Michigan. M. 
P. H. C, II, 95-104. Presents the French influence as im- 
favorable to agricultural settlement. 

Hamlin, Mrs. M. (Carrie W.). Old French Traditions. M. P. 
H. C, IV, 70-78. Life of the Michigan Canadians. 

Grossman, Hon. D. L. Early French Occupation of Michigan. 
M. P. H. C, XIV, 651-668. 

Weadock, Hon. Thomas A. E., M. C. A Catholic Priest in Con- 
gress. Sketch of Rev. Gabriel Richard. M. P. H. C, XXI, 
432-447. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 567 

Elliott, Richard R. The Last of the Barons. M. P. H C XXI 
494-500. 

Dudley, Rev. Thomas P. Battle and Massacre at Frenchtown, 
Michigan, January, 1813. M. P. H. C, XXII, 436-443. Dud- 
ley was one of the survivors. Useful for condition of the Mich- 
igan Canadians at that time. 

Beeson, L. H. Fort St. Joseph. The Mission, Trading Post and 
Fort, located about one mile south of Niles, Michimn. M P 
H. C, XXVIII, 179-186. 

Day, John E. The Jesuits in Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXXII 
405-409. 

McCoy, Daniel. Old Fort St. Joseph. M. P. H. C, XXXV. 
545-552. 

vSurvey and Sale of Michigan Lands 

Cannon, George H. The Early Surveys oj Michigan. M. P. 

H. C, X, 60-63. Tifhn's report, extracted from American State 

Papers, Public Lands, V. 
First Sale of Michigan Lands. M. P. H. C, XIII, 483-484. At 

Detroit, 1818. An article from the Salem (Mass.) Register, 

June 10, 1818. 

WooDARD, C. S. The Public Domain, its surveys and surveyors. 
M. P. H. C, XXVII, 306-323. 

Navigation, Transportation and Trade 

ZuG, Samuel. The Port of Detroit. A History of the Custmn 
House [etc.]. M. P. H. C, I, 468-472. 

Dewey, Francis A. A Sketch of the Marine of Lake Erie previous 
to the year 1829. M. P. H. C, IV, 79-81. 

Ingersoll, John N. The Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal Celebra- 
tion. M. P. H. C, V, 469-471. Date, 1838. 

HoYT, Wm. C. Notes from an Old Account Book. M. P. H. C. 
V, 558-561. Kept by Mack and Conant. Detroit, 1819+ . 

Bliss, A. N., A. M. Federal Land Grants for Internal Improve- 
ments in the State of Michigan. M. P. H. C, VII, 52-68. 

Massey, H. Traveling on the Great Lakes when Detroit was young. 
M. P. H. C, VII, 131-133. 

Navigation of the Lakes. Anon. M. P. II. C, VII, 153-154. 
From the Detroit Gazette, Oct. 24, 1823. 

Stevens, Sherman. The Building of the Pontiac Railroad. 
M. P. H. C, XIII, 484-486. 



568 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Steamboats on Lake Erie. M. P. H. C, XIV, 543-544. From the 

White Pigeon Republican, May 15, 1839. 
Bancroft, William L. Memoir of Capt. Samuel Ward, with a 

sketch of the early commerce of the Upper Lakes. M. P. H. C. 

XXI, 336-367. 

Mitchell, C. T. Progress in Transportation and Mails in the 

Last Fifty Years. M. P. H. C, XXII, 281-283. 
Joy, James F. Railroad History of Michigan. M. P. H. C, 

XXII, 292-304. 

Barber, Edm^ard W. The Great Lakes. Interesting Data concern- 
ing them: Michigan's relation to them; Growth of Traffic on thetn. 
M. P. H. C, XXIX, 515-526. 

Roads and Travel 

Thompson, Rev. O. C. Observations and Experiences in Michigan 

Forty Years Ago. M. P. H. C, I, 395-402. "Read before the 

Detroit Pioneer Society, January 13th, 1873." A very useful 

account of travel and settlement in the Kalamazoo Valley about 

1830 by a contemporary. 
Williams, B. O. Survey of the State Military Road from Saginaw 

to Mackinaw. M. P. H. C, II, 462-470. By a contemporary. 
Cole, I. L. Journal of a Pedestrian Tour from Detroit to Sagina 

(Saginaw) River in 1822. M. P. H. C, II, 470-475. 
The Early Modes of Transit at Detroit. The Original Ferry-Boat 

and its successors. M. P. H. C, II, 579-581. 
[Hubbard, Gurdon S.] Journey of Gurdon S. Hubbard . . . 

from Montreal to Mackinac and Chicago in 1818. M. P. H. C, 

III, 125-127. 
Edwards, Major Abraham. A Sketch of Pioneer Life. M. P. 

H. C, III, 148-151. A letter written in 1851. Trip from 

Detroit to southern Michigan in August, 1828, by the founder 

of Edwardsburg, Cass County. 
Northrup, Enos. First Trip to Michigan. M. P. H. C, V, 

69-70. From Ohio to Detroit via Monroe in 1830. Extracts 

from diary. 
McCoRMicK, Wm. R. a Trip from Detroit to the Saginaw Valley 

[etc.]. M. P. H. C, VII, 271-277. Date, 1832. 
Dye, Mrs. Richard. Coming to Michigan. M. P. H. C, VIII, 

260-265. Trip from Herkimer, New York, to Ionia, in 1837. 
Dewey, F. A. From Buffalo to Michigan in 1829. M. P. H. C, 

IX, 161-166. Buffalo to Lenawee County. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 569 

Williams, Ephraim S. Remembrances of Early Days. Indians 
and an Indian Trail. A trip from Pontiac to Grand Blanc and 
the Saginaws. M. P. H. C, X, 137-142. Date, 1833. 

[Miller, Judge Albert]. My first trip to Lansing. M. P. H. C, 
XIII, 367-369. Made in 1847, from the Saginaw Valley. 

Haynes, Hon. Harvey. A Trip from Rome [N. Y.] to Mackinaw 
in Territorial Days, with powder and clothing for Soldiers at the 
Fort. M. P. H. C, XIII, 520-525. Date, 1833. 

Williams, E. S. A Trip on April FooVs Day. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
539-541. From Saginaw to Detroit, 1829 or 1830. 

[Hubbard, Gurdon S.] A Voyageur of 1818. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
544-546. Trips between various points in and near Michigan, 
in 1818. 

Hinman, John F. My first Journey to Michigan, with other 
Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, XIV, 563-571. From Rutland 
County, Vermont, to Charlotte, Eaton County, in 1838. 

Expedition to Detroit, 1793. M. P. H. C, XVII, 565-671. A 
journey of Quakers from Philadelphia, and their return. Re- 
printed from the Friends' Miscellany, Vols. I, II and VI. 

Goodrich, Enos. Across Michigan Territory Sixty Years Ago. 
M. P. H. C, XXVI, 228-235. ' From Detroit to Chicago, via 
the Chicago Road, in 1834. 

Tower, Mrs. Prudence. The Journey of Ionia s First Settlers. 
M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 145-148. Notes by the daughter of 
Samuel Dexter, foimder of Ionia. 

Palmer, Friend. Ferry Service between Detroit and Windsor. 
M. P. H. C, XXXII, 463-467. Date, 1825-h. 

Sources of Population 

Williams, Rev. Wolcott B. New England Influence in Michi- 
gan. M. P. H. C, XVII, 311-319. 

Ten Brook, Andrew. Our German Immigrations. M. P. H. C, 
XXVI, 241-255. Date, 1825+. 

Banks and Banldng 

Felch, Alpheus. Early Banks and Banking in Michigan. M. P. 

H. C, II, 111-124. From 1806 to 1839. 
Randall, C. D. Early Banking in Branch County. M. P. H. C, 

III, 339-347. 
[Miller, L. M.] Early Banks and Bankers of Macomb Coimty. 

M. P. H. C, V, 471-484. 



570 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

HuGGiNs, Andrew. Exchange Bank of Shiawassee. M. P. H. C, 

XXVIII, 511-513. 
Palmer, Friend. The Old Bank of Michigan [1818]. M. P. H. C, 

XXX, 410-423. 

Government 

Establishment and Organization of Counties. M. P. H. C, I, 94-1- . 

Laws extracted from volumes of the Territorial Laws. 
Campbell, Judge James V. Governors and Judges of Michigan. 

From the first claim of jurisdiction by France under French 

dominion. M. P. H. C", III, 114-117. 

Jenney, Hon. William. Governors of Michigan Territory. M. P. 
H. C, III, 119-120. 

Evarts, Wm. M. [A list of territorial officers with terms of office.] 
M. P. H. C, III, 121-122. 

Van Buren, A. D. P. Michigan in her Pioneer Politics; Michigan 
in our National Politics, and Michigan in the Presidential Cam- 
paign of 1856. M. P. H. C, XVII, 238-295. 

Miscellaneous papers bearing upon the relations between the United 
States, the British and the Indians of the Northwest from 1790 to 
1829. M. P. H. C, XXIII, 1-602. 

Papers on the relation of the United States and the British in Canada 
regarding the Northwest, 1805-1823. M. P. H. C, XXV, 217- 
681. "Copies of papers on file in the Dominion Archives at 
Ottawa, Canada, pertaining to Michigan, as found in the 
Colonial Office Records." A continuation of the collection in 
M. P. H. C, XXIV. 

Copies of Papers on File in the Dominion Archives at Ottawa, 
Canada, Pertaining to the Relations of the British Government 
with the United States during the period of the War of 1812. M. 
P. H. C, XV and XVI. A few papers in vol. XVI are useful for 
immigration and settlement in Michigan, (pp. 414-706 passim), 
dealing with subsequent relations, 1816-1820. 

The Beginnings of Territorial Government in Michigan {1805- 
1808). M. P. H. C, XXXI, 510-612. "Manuscripts in the 
Department of State at Washington, D. C. Compiled with 
an Introduction, by Charles Moore, Ph. D." . 

Territorial Records. M. P. H. C, XXXVI, 100-620. Extend 
from 1805-1831. Many of the originals are in the Burton 
Library, Detroit. Some of them are transcripts from the Ameri- 
can State Papers. Introduction and notes. Very valuable for 
many phases of settlement in those years, but bear mainly 
upon political and governmental affairs. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 571 

Territorial Records. M. P. H. C, XXXVII, 17-507. Continuation 
of papers published in Vol. XXXVI. Contain the Woodbridge 
and Williams papers (pp. 17-31), and the Schoolcraft papers, 
1831-1836 (pp. 221-4 19). 

Pioneer Press 

Holmes, J. C. Some Notes respecting the Pioneer Newspapers of 
Michigan. M. P. H. C, I, 385-395. Address, December 16, 
1873. 

Applegate, Tom S. A History of the Press of Michigan. M. P. 
H. C, VI, 62-98. Prepared for Centennial by order of Gov. 
John J. Bagley. 

Baxter., Benjamin L. History of the Tecumseh Press. M. P. 
H. C, XXVIII, 536-539. 

QuiNBY, Hon. William E. Reminiscences' of Michigan Journal- 
ism. M. P. H. C, XXX, 507-517. 

Education 

TiBBiTS, J. S. Schools of Wayne County at an Early Day. M. P. 
H. C, I, 429-431. "Read before the Wayne County Pioneer 
Society, April 21, 1874." 

WiLKiNs, William D. Traditions and Reminiscences of the Public 

Schools of Detroit. M. P. H. C. I, 448-466. 
OsBAND, Melvin D. Pioneer Schools and their Patrons of the Town 

of Nankin, Wayne County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, IV, 57-62. 
CoMSTOCK, Dr. O. C. Rev. John D. Pierce. M. P. H. C, V, 

184-187. 
Williams, B. O. My Recollections of the Early Schools of Detroit 

that I attended from the Year 1816 to 1819. M. P. H. C, V, 

547-550. 
Knight, George W., Ph. D. History of the Land Grants for Edu- 
cation in Michigan. M. P. H. C, VII, 17-35. 
Salmon, Lucy M., A.' M. Education in Michigan dtiring the 

Territorial Period. M. P. H. C, VII, 36-51. 
CoMSTOCK, Dr. O. C. Hon. Isaac E. Crary. M. P. H. C, XIV, 

280-283. Crary was a prominent early settler of Marshall, 

Calhoun County, and closely associated with the beginnings of 

Michigan's public school system. 
Norton, J. M. Early Schools and Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, 

XXVIII, 107-110. 



572 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Williams, Rev. Wolcott B. Two Early Efforts to found Colleges 

in Michigan, at Delta and at Marshall. 'M. P. H. C, XXX, 

524-549. 
Ford, Clyde R., LL. D. The Life and Work of John D. Pierce- 

M. P. H. C, XXXV, 295-308. 
Pierce, John D. Origin and Progress of the Michigan School 

System. M. P. H. C, I, 37-45. A paper read before the 

Pioneer Society, February 3, 1875. 

Slavery 

GiRARDiN, J. A. Slavery in Detroit. M. P. H. C, I, 415-417. 
[Backus, W. W.] Sale of Negro Man Pompey. M. P. H. C, I, 

417. Date, 1794. Copy of deed furnished by W. W. Backus 

of Detroit. 
Relative to the subject of Slavery. M. P. H. C, XII, 511-522. 

Opinion of Judge Woodward. 

Pioneer Life — Food, Houses, Customs, Manners, Amusements and 

Incidents. For Relations with the Indians see above, 

"Indians." 

NowLiN, William Esq. The Bark-covered House, or Pioneer 

Life in Michigan. IV, 480-541. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. What the Pioneers Ate and Hovu they 

Fared. Michigan Food and Cookery in the Early Days. M. P. 

H. C, V, 293-296. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. "Raisings" and "Bees" among the Early 

Settlers. M. P. H. C, V, 296-300. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. The Frolics of Forty-five Years Ago. M. P. 

H. C, V, 304-309. 
Begole, Hon. Josiah W. Recollections of Pioneer Life. M. P. 

H. C, V, 339-344. 
NoRTHRUP, Ends. On Going to Mill. Traveling three hundred 

miles to mill; or. What I know about going to mill. Al. P. H. C, 

V, 405-406. 

Taylor, P. H. Christmas in Ionia Fifty Years Ago. M. P. H. C, 

VI, 300. 

Description of the birchen canoe. M. P. H. C, VII, 162-164. 

From T. L. McKenney's Tour to the Lakes in 1826. 
Busby, Joseph. Recollections of Pioneer Life in Michigan. M. P. 

H. C, IX, 118-127. Date, 1831 + . 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 573 

Williams, Ephraim. Incidents of Early Days in Michimn. 

M. P. H. C, IX, 166-172. Date, 1820 + . 
Papers on the relation of white settlers with the Indians in Kalamazoo 

and Calhoun Counties. M. P. H. C, X, 147-172. 
Old French Carts. M. P. H. C, XIII, 491-49vS. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. The Log Schoolhouse Era in Michigan; or, 

My Schools and My Schoolmasters during our first and Second 

Pioneer Decades. M. P. H. C, XIV, 283-402. 
Watkins, L. D. The Old Log House. M. P. H. C, XXVI 

644-646. 

Goodrich, Enos. Trials of Pioneer Business Men. M. P. H C 

XXVIII, 122-128. 

Beardsley, a. M. Reminiscences and Scenes of Backwoods and 
Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 137-141. About 1838, in 
St. Joseph County. 

Watkins, L. D. Destruction of the Forests of Southern Michigan. 

M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 148-150. 
HuTCHiNS, Mrs. Harrison. Pioneering. Gathering Sap and 

Going to Mill. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 638-640. A poem by a 

pioneer, reflecting the spirit of the early days. 
CuTCHEON, B. M. Log Cabin Times and Log Cabin People. M. P. 

H. C, XXIX, 609-624. 
OsBAND, Melvin D. The Pioneer and his Work. M. P. H. C, 

XXIX, 709-717. 

Barker, Edward W. Recollections and Lessons of Pioneer Boy- 
hood. M. P. H. C, XXXI, 178-227. 

Beal, W. J. Pioneer Life in Southern Michigan in the Thirties. 
M. P. H. C, XXXII, 236-246. 

Shettler, Mrs. Eliza M. Scott. Lights and Shadows from 
Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 184-198. 

Potter, Theodore E. A Boys Story of Pioneer Life in Michigan. 
M. P. H. C, XXXV, 393-412. 

General and Miscellaneous 

Chase, Rev. Supply. Early History of the Baptist Church in 

Michigan. M. P. H. C, I, 466-468. 
Griffith, Rev. S. N. Sketch of the Early History of Methodism 

in the Southwestern part of the State of Michigan. M. P. H. C, 

II, 158-171. Date, 1829-f. 



574 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Wells, Judge H. G. Law and the Legal Profession. M. P. H. C, 

III, 129-139. Brief biographical sketches of leading lawyers in 

the Territorial period. 
CoMSTOCK, Dr. O. C. Biographical sketch of Martin Heydenburk. 

M. P. H. C, III, 152-153. Southwestern Michigan, 1833-4. 
Trowbridge, Hon. C. C. History of the Episcopal Church in 

Michigan. M. P. H. C, III, 213-221. 
A Michigan Emigrant Song. M. P. H. C, III, 265. From the 

Detroit Post and Tribune of February 13th, 1881. Begins 

"My Eastern Friends who wish to find." Said to have been 

much used in 1833 and the years following. 
Shearer, Jonathan. Wheat in New York and Michigan [1824- 

1861]. M. P. H. C, IV, 82-83. 
Ferry, Senator Thomas W. The Growth and Progress of Michi- 
gan. M. P. H. C, V, 21-26. 
Chase, Rev. Supply. A Pioneer Minister. M. P. H. C, V, 

52-60. Reminiscences on general topics. 
Hawley Gerrells in 1828. M. P. H. C, V, 77-79. Letter, 1874, 

reminiscent of settlements in Southeastern Michigan in 1828. 
Pilcher, Rev. Elijah H. Forty Years Ago. M. P. H. C, V, 

80-89. Observations on settlement by a contemporary, 1830 + • 
Copley, A. B. Early Settlement of Southwestern Michigan. M. P. 

H. C, V, 144-151. The best summary of settlement in this 

section. 
[CoLTON, C] Lake St. Clair in 1830. M. P. H. C, VI, 418-420. 

From C. Colton's Tour of the Lakes in 1S30. 
Several notes of some value for Michigan settlement in 1823-4. 

M. P. H. C, VII, 74-77. 
Pioneer Song. Begins "Know ye the land to the emigrant dear." 

M. P. H. C, VII, 80-81. 
HuRD, Rev. Philo R., D. D. An Historical Sketch of Congrega- 
tionalism in Michigan brought down to the year 1884. M. P. 

H. C, VII, 103-111. 
Brief Notes and papers relating to the history of Detroit and Michigan 

Territory from 1805 to the close of the War of 1812. M. P. H. C, 

VIII, 548-659. 
Peck, Hon. Edward W. Disputed Questions in the Early History 

of Michigan. M. P. H. C, XI, 151-161. 
Holmes, J. C. The Michigan State Historical Society. M. P. 

H. C, XII, 316-350. An account of the work of the society 

formed under the aupices of Lewis Cass and others in 1828. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 575 

[Pierce, John D.]. Congregationalism in Michimn. M P H 
C, XII, 351. Date, 1831 + . ' ' ' 

Letter from A. B. Woodward to James Madison, Sec. of State dated 
Detroit, July 18, 1807. M. P. H. C, XII, 505-507. General 
conditions in Michigan Territory. 

Dewey, F. A. Some Sketches of the Long Ago. M. P. H. C, 
XIV, 528-531. Mainly about Detroit and Southwestern Mich- 
igan after 1830. 

WiLLARD, Hon. George. The Making of Michigan. M P H C 
XVII, 295-310. ■ ■ ■' 

Gilbert, Thomas D. Developnent of Western Michigan. M. P. 

H. C., XVII, 319-325. General, mainly on the later period, 

but suggestive. 
Crawford, Rev. R. C. Fifty-two Years of Itinerant Life in the 

Michigan Conference of the M. E. Church. M. P. H. C., XXII, 

266-281. Concerns mainly Southwestern Michigan. 
CuTCHEON, Hon. Byron M. Fifty Years of Growth in Michigan 

M. P. H. C, XXII, 479-502. General, but suggestive. Mainly 

from 1842+ . 

Wing, J. Warner. Michigan as a Territory, and some of its 

Inhabitants. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 255-259. 
Warner, Wm. W. Early History of Michigan. M. P. H. C 

XXVII, 289-304. 
Letters of Lucius Lyon. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 412-604. Valuable. 

Great variety of topics relating to Michigan settlement between 

1822 and 1845. Lyon was one of the first two United States 

Senators from Michigan, previous to which time he was a 

pioneer in Southwestern Michigan. 
Watkins, L. D. Seventy Years of Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXX, 

63-68. 
[Brown, E. Lakin]. Atitohiographical N otes . M. P. H. C, XXX, 

424-494. "Edited by his daughter, A. Ada Brown." 

[Mason, Miss Emily V.] Chapters fro^n the Autobiography of an 
Octogenerian, 1830-1850. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 248-258. 

Chamberlain, Henry. A Michigan Octogenerian. M. P. H. C, 
XXXV, 662-669. General. Deals largely with later period. 

Allegan County 

Henderson, Donald C. Allegan County. Its rise, progress and 
growth in population, with a brief history of its press. M. P. 
H. C, III, 270-276. 



576 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Morgan, G. A. The Township of Allegan, Its topography, pro- 
ducts, early settlement, and history. M. P. H. C, III, 276-293. 
From 1834+ . 

Henderson, Donald C. Notes on Saugatuck. M. P. H. C, III, 

301-310. Useful mainly for later period. 
Trowbridge, C. C. [Early history of Allegan County]. M. P. 

H. C, IV, 173-176. 
Report of Memorial Committee, Allegan County {1895). M. P. H. C, 

XXVI, 2)2>0-?)?)?>. Useful reminiscences. 
Mix, Col. E. [The Pioneers of Allegan County]. M. P. H. C, 

XVII, 557-564. 

Morgan, G. A. Township of Pine Plains — A Historical Sketch. 
M. P. H. C, III, 293-296. From the Allegan Journal of June 8, 
1878. 

Barry County 

Goodyear, Henry A. Sketch of Barry County. M. P. H. C, I, 
112-117. Historical address, July 4, 1876. One of the best of 
the few sources for Barry County. 

Cherry, Henry P. Early History of Johnstown, Barry County. 
M. P. H. C, XXVI, 221-228. 

White, George H. Yankee Lewis' Famous Hostelry in the Wil- 
derness. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 302-307. 

HoYT, Mrs. Mary M. Early Recollections of Pioneer Life in 
Michigan and the founding of Yankee Springs. M. P. H. C, 
• XXX, 289-302. 

Berrien County 

WiNSLOW, Damon A. Early History of Berrien County. M. P. 

H. C, I, 120-125. Address, Feb. 2, 1876. 
Bishop, Henry. Settlement of New Buffalo, Berrien County. 

M. P. H. C, I, 125-126. 
WiNSLOW, Damon A. Bench and Bar of Berrien County, Michigan. 

M. P. H. C, XVII, 391-409. Useful biographical sketches of 

prominent pioneers. 
Anon. History of the extinct village of Bertrand. M. P. H. C, 

XXVIII, 128-133. 

Branch County 

Haynes, Hon. Harvey. Sketches of the Early History of Branch 
County. M. P. H. C, VI, 216-224. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 577 

Fisher, Rev. J. Emory. Semi-centennial History [of Ouincy 
township and village]. M. P. H. C, VI, 237-247. 

Coldwater in 1831. M. P. H. C, VII, 346-348. A Letter to Dr. 
I. P. Alger, by Enoch Chase, Esq., dated Jan. 19, 1884. 

Cross, Wm. H. Early Michigan. M. P. H. C, X, 54-57. 

Haynes, Harvey. Reminiscences of Early Days in Coldwater and 
Vicinity. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 284-288. 

Calhoun County 

Dickey, Col. Charles. Early Settlement of Calhoun County. 

M. P. H. C, I, 128-132. Address, Feb. 2, 1876. 
[Perrine, Rev. W. H.]. Notes on the Settlement of townships in 

Calhoun County. M. P. H. C, II, 208-262. Among the best 

contributions for Calhoun County. 
[Anon.] The City of Battle Creek — Its early history, growth, and 

present condition. M. P. H. C, III, 347-367. From the De- 
troit Post and Tribune, June 16, 1878. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. Pioneer Annals; containing the history of 

the early settlement of Battle Creek city and township, with vivid 

sketches of pioneer life and pen portraits of the early settlers. 

M. P. H. C, V, 237-259. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. Pen Pictures of our Pioneers. Heroic hut 

ineffectual struggle of Verona to outstrip Battle Creek. M. P. 

H. C, V, 259-272. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. The First Settlers in the Township of Battle 

Creek. M. P^ H. C, V, 272-293. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. History of the Churches in Battle Creek. 

M. P. H. C, V, 310-324. 
Poppleton, O. How Battle Creek received its Name. M. P. H. C, 

VI, 248-251. 
Sketches, Reminiscences, and Anecdotes of the old Members of the 

Calhoun and Kalamazoo County Bars. M. P. H. C, XI, 

271-318. 

Clinton County 

Bronson, Wm. Pioneer History of Clinton County. M. P. H. C, 

V, 325-333. 
Pioneer Piety. M. P. H. C, XIII, 407-424. Articles on early 

churches and preachers in the Saginaw and Flint districts. 
NiLES, Mrs. M. J. Old Times in Clinton County. M. P. H. C, 

XIV, 620-626. 1831-}-. 
73 



578 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Scott, David. Early History of Clinton County, Michigan. M. P. 
H. C, XVII, 410-413. 

Eaton County 

Ingersoll, Mrs. E. S. Early Settlement of Delta. M. P. H. C, 

I, 157-160. Reminiscences, 1834+- 
FooTE, Edward A., Esq. Historical Sketch of the early days of 

Eaton County. M. P. H. C, III, 379-431. 
Pioneer History of the Settlement of Eaton County. M. P. H. C, 

XXII, 502-526. A series of brief papers written by pioneers. 
Barber, Edward W. The Vermontville Colony: Its Genesis and 

History, with personal sketches of the colonists. M. P. H. C, 

XXVIII, 197-287. 
Barber, Edward W. Beginnings in Eaton County: Its Earliest 

Settlements and Settlers. M. P. H. C, XXIX, 337-397. 

Genesee County 

Thompson, Hon. E. H. The City of Flint. M. P. H. C, III, 

431-468. 
vStevens, Sherman. Sketch of Early Pioneer Life. M. P. H. C, 

VII, 93-98. Reminiscences of early Genesee County. 
Miller, Ji^dge Albert. Reminiscences [1830-|-]. M. P. H. C, 

VII, 388-394. 
Stevens, Sherman. Early Days in Genesee County. M. P. H. C, 

VII, 394-398. 

Williams, Ephraim S. .Personal Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, 

VIII, 233-259. 

Goodrich, Enos. Early Atlas. A Pioneer Sketch. M. P. H. C, 

XVII, 413-416. 
Townsend, Goodenough. Early History of the Township of 

Davison. [1835+]. M. P. H. C, XXII, 542-555. 
Shout Mary E. Reminiscences of the First Settlement at Owosso. 

M. P. H. C, XXX, 344-352. 
Bates, William R. The Development of Flint. M. P. H. C, 

XXXV, 359-387. Useful, but largely on the later period. 

Hillsdale County 

Holloway, F. M. Hillsdale County from 1829 to 1836 Inclusive. 
M. P. H. C, I, 170-180. Mainly on the Ohio boundary dis- 
pute. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 579 

^^^^'^''^ u^'I^'^'^V ^n'^y ^''^""^y ^/ Litchfield, Hillsdale County. 
M. P. H. C, I, 180-181. Reminiscences, 1834+. 

Ingham County 

Bishop, Hon. Levi. Recollections. M. P. H C I SI 1-517 
Notes for 1835-1847. A reminiscence of the removal of 'the 
State Capitol from Detroit to Lansing. 

Goodrich, Enos. Locating the State Capitol at Lansing. M P 
H. C, VIII, 121-130. One of the best papers on this sub- 
ject. 

Williams, A. L. Removal of the State Capitol from Detroit M P 
H. C, VIII, 130-135. ■ 

ROBSON, Frank, E., Esq. How Lansing became the Capital M 
P. H. C, XI, 237-243. 

Blades, F. A. Driving the First Stake for the Capitol at Lansine. 
M. P. H. C, XXXIII, 10-22. ^' 

Ionia County 

LiNC0LN,_W. B. First Settlement of Ionia County M P H C 
I, 193-194. • • . ^., 

[Anon.] The City of Ionia. Its first settlement and early history 
M. P. H. C, III, 470-490. 

Taylor, P. H. The First Settlement of Ionia. M P H C 
XIV, 560-562. • . • •' 

Tower, Mrs. Prudence. The Journey of Ionia s First Settlers 
M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 145-148. 

Jackson County 

Shoemaker, Michael. Historical Sketch of the City of Jackson 
Michigan. M. P. H. C, II, 272-348. Among the most useful 
contributions for the settlement of Jackson County. 

[Anon.] A brief Account of the Early Settlers of Blackman, Rives 
and Henrietta townships. M. P. H. C, III, 503-504. 

Little, Henry. Fifty Years Ago. Jacksonburg and Jackson 
County, 1829-1879. M. P. H. C. Ill', 509-512. 

[Anon.] Brooklyn and Vicinity. M. P. H. C, IV, 271-275. 

De Lamater, Hon. A. H. The Township of Columbia from 18 ^^ 
to 1836. M. P. H. C, IV, 276-281. 

A series of useful brief papers on the settlement of Jackson Comity 
M. P. H. C, V, 345-354. 



580 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Prescott, Samuel. Early Settlers of the Town of Blackman. 

M. P. H. C, VII, 464.' • 
Hodge, Hon. Hiram C. Brief History of Pulaski, Jackson 

County. M. P. H. C, XVII, 416-419. 
McGee, Judge Melville. The Early Days of Concord, Jackson 

County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXI, 418-431. 
Griswold, Joseph M. Some Reminiscences of Early Times in 

Brooklyn, fackson County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 

256-261. 

Kalamazoo County 

Van Buren, A. D. P. History of the Village of Comstock. M. P. 

H. C, V, 360-363. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. Titus Branson, the Founder of Kalamazoo 

[and other pioneers of Kalamazoo]. M. P. H. C, V, 363-393. 
Walker, Hon. John. Pioneer History of Cooper. M. P. H. C, 

V, 403-405. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. The Alphadelphia Association. Its history 

in Comstock. M. P. H. C, V, 406-412. One of the few com- 
munistic experiments in eariy Michigan, 1843 + . 
Ransom, Major Wyllys C. Historical Address at Kalamazoo, 

Mich., July 4, 1884. M. P. H. C, VII, 469-478. 
White, George H. A Sketch of Lucius Lyon, one of the first 

senators from Michigan. M. P. H. C., XIII, 325-333. 
Van Buren, A. D. P. The Women of our Pioneer Epoch. M. P. 

H. C., XIV, 517-528. 
Torrey, George. The Press of Kalamazoo. M. P. H. C., XVII, 

369-391. Very brief on the eariy Press. 
Wilson, Mrs. Etta Smith. Life and Work of the late Rev. Ceorge 

N. Smith, a Pioneer Missionary [1833 + ]. M. P. H. C., XXX, 

190-212. 

Kent County 

Ball, John. Physical Geography of Kent County. M. P. H. C, 

I, 214-217. 
Little, Henry. Grand Rapids History. M. P. H. C, IV, 

286-293. 
Withey, Mrs. S. L. Personal Recollections and Incidents of the 

Early Days of Richland and Grand Rapids. M. P. H. C, V, 

434-439. From 1833+. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY oSl 

Baxter, Albert. Some Fragments of Beginnings in the Grand 
River Valley. M. P. H. C, XVII, 325-331. Most of these 
notes are incorporated in Baxter's History of Grand Rapids. 

Baxter, Albert. First ''Yankee" Family at Grand Rapids. 
M. P. H. C, XXIX, 503-505. 

HoYT, Mary M. Lewis. Life of Leonard Slater. M. P. H. C, 
XXXV, 142-155. 

Lapeer County 

Hart, Capt. N. H. Pioneer Sketches. M. P. H. C, III, 548- 

552. 

Lenawee County 

Dewey, F. A. Lenawee County. A Sketch of its Early Settlement. 
M. P. H. C, I, 221-224. From 1824+. 

Millard, Hon. A. L. Historical Sketch of Lenawee County. 
M. P. H. C, I, 224-237. A Fourth of July address, 1876. 
Carefully prepared statement of details of early settlement. 
One of the best contributions for this county. 

Kedzie, James T. Blissfield, Lenawee County. M. P. H. C, I, 
238-241. "A Sketch of the first Presbyterian church, prepared 
by James T. Kedzie for the executive committee of the Presby- 
terian Historical Society." Pertinent items for early settle- 
ment. Pages 241-251 contain some items of value, mainly by 
the same writer. 

Adam, John J. Early History of Lenawee County. M. P. H. C, 
II, 357-387. One of. the best papers on Lenawee County. 

Brown, E. B. Early Recollections of the Village of Tecumseh. 
Letter from E. B. Brown to Gen. Joseph Brown, Dated Hastings, 
Ldg., ///., January 29th, 1878. M. P. H. C, II, 387-390. A 
reminiscence by a member of the party that founded Tecumseh. 

Dewey, Francis A. Early Settlers in Lenawee County. M. P. 
H. C, III, 552-556. 

Dewey, F. A. [Brief outline of the first settlement of Michigan, 
with special reference to the township of Cambridge, Lenawee 
County.] M. P. H. C, IV, 300-305. 

Stacy, C. A. Lenawee s Pioneer Lawyers. M. P. H. C. V, 
441-444. Good for sources of population. 

Papers and addresses on the Early Settlement of Lenawee County. 
M. P. H. C, VII, 516-542. 

Lamb, Orsamus. Early History of Woodstock. M. P. H. C, 
VIII, 194-201. 



582 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

[Brown, Gen. J. W.] Early History of Lenawee County. M. P. 

H. C, XII, 407-409. 
A group of papers useful for study of the settlement of townships 

in Lenawee County. M. P. H. C, XVII, 508-538. 
Two short papers on Lenawee County settlement, 1833 + . 

M. P. H. C, XXII, 556-564. 

Livingston County 

Clark, Hon. William A. Livingston Cojmty Pioneers. M. P. 
H. C, I, 252-258. 

Macomb County 

Day, John E. Sketches and Incidents concerning the Settlement of 

Macomb County. M. P. H. C, IV, 307-315. 
BissELL, Rev. H. N. The Early Settlement of Mt. Clemens and 

Vicinity. M. P. H. C, V, 450-469. 
Notes on the early settlement of Mt. Clemens, furnished by Gen. John 

Stockton and Edward Tucker to Mrs. E. M. Sheldon Stewart. 

M. P. H. C, VI, 357-361. 
Campau, L. Early Farmers. M. P. H. C, VIII, 405-6. 
Ford, Henry A. The Old Moravian Mission at Mt. Clemens. 

[cir. 1781]. M. P. H. C, X, 107-115. 
Cannon, Geo. H. History of the Township of Shelby, Macomb 

County, Michigan. M. P. H. C, XVII, 419-429. 
Parker, Hon. Warren. Early History of Macomb County. M. 

P. H. C, XVltl, 485-502. 
Cannon, Geo. H. A Sketch of Early History. The First Owners 

of Washington Toivnship, Macomb County. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 

547-553. 
Cannon, Geo. H. Early History of Ray Township [1816+], 

Macomb County. M. P. H. C, XXVII, 276-284. 
Bush, Mrs. The Moravians in Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 

133-137. 
Cannon, Geo. H. Notes of Early History of Bruce Township, 

Macomb County. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 422-425. 
Day, John E. The Moravians in Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXX, 

44-51. 

Monroe Coimty 

Wing, Talcott E. History of Monroe County, Michigan. M. P. 
H. C, IV, 318-324. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 583 

Wing, Talcott E. Continuation of the History of Monroe. M. P. 
H. C, VI, 374-382. 

Christiancy, Hon. I. P. Recollections of the Early History of 
the City and County of Monroe. M. P. H. C, VI, 361-373. 

Muskegon County 

Holt, Hon. Henry H. The Centennial History of Muskegon. 
M. P. H. C, I, 286-301. Concerns mainly the years after 
1837. 

Baxter, Albert. Muskegon Pioneer Remnants [lS33-\-]. M. P. 
H. C, XXVI, 272-274. 

Oakland County 

Williams, B. O. Early Michigan. Sketch of the Life of Oliver 
Williams and Family. M. P. H. C, II, 36-40. Deals prin- 
cipally with Oakland County, 1818-1820. 

Parke, Capt. Harvey. Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, III, 572- 
593. Useful from 1821+ for Oakland County. 

Drake, Hon. Thomas J. History of Oakland County. M. P. 
H. C, III, 559-572. 

The Settlement of Farmington. By one of its early settlers. M. P. 
H. C, IV, 419-422. 

Lamb, C. A. Reminiscences. M. P. H. C, V, 47-51. 

Sketch of the First Settlement of Pontiac, as given by Mr. Orisson 
Allen to Mrs. E. M. Sheldon Stewart in 1850. M. P. H. C, 

VI, 384-386. 

Poppleton, O. Early History of Oakland County. M. P. H. C, 

VII, 556-561. 

HoYT, Dr. Jas. M. History of the Town of Commerce. M. P. 

H. C, XIV, 421-430. 
Crawford, Rev. R. C. Address to the Pioneers of Oakland 

County, 1883. M. P. H. C, XIV, 585-602. Reminiscences of 

early settlement in Oakland Coimty. 
Fish, Mrs. Fannie E. Sketch of ''Piety Hill,'' Oakland County. 

M. P. H. C, XIV, 602-609. 
McCracken, S. B. Fifty Years Ago and Now. M. P. H. C, 

XIV, 609-620. 
Norton, John M. A Picture of Memory. Settlement of Oakland 

County. M. P. H. C, XXII, 404-426. 



584 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Norton, John M. Early Pioneer Life in Oakland County. M. P. 
H. C, XXVI, 262-264. 

Crawford, R. C. Reminiscences of Seventy Years in Michigan. 
[1817+]. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 585-593. ' 

Norton, Hon. John M. Early Influence oj Oakland County in 
the History of Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXVI, 632-634. 

Baldwin, Augustus C. Oakland Cotinty. Its Bench and Bar 
prior to 1840. M. P. H. C, XXXI, 152-172. 

Extracts from old Letters. M. P. H. C, XXXV, 672-679. Con- 
nected mainly with Pontiac. 

Phipps, Mrs. Lucy O. Beach. Early Days in Pontiac. M. P. 
H. C, XXXV, 679-680. 

Ottawa County 

Rev. William Montague Ferry. M. P. H. C, VI, 391-397. Early 
settlement of Grand Haven. 

Ottawa County. Papers read at the semi-centennial celebration of 
its settlement, held at Grand Haven, Dec. 2, 1884. M. P. H. C, 
IX, 222-342. Very useful for early settlement, though mainly 
concerned with the progress of the county since the early 
days. 

Ferry, William M. Ottawa's Old Settlers. M. P. H. C, XXX, 
572-582. 

Saginaw County 

Whiting, J. L. [.4 Sketch of the early military occupation of the 

Saginaw Valley]. M. P. H. C, II, 460-462. Useful for 1822-f-. 

Explains origin of the unfavorable reports about the Saginaw 

Valley. 
McCoRMiCK, W. R. Pioneer Life in the Saginaw Valley. M. P. 

H. C, III, 602-605. From 1834+ . 
McCoRMicK, Hon. W. R. [Sketch of early life in the Saginaw 

Valley, 1832+]. M. P. H. C, IV, 364-373. 
Jewett, Mrs. Azuhah L. Pioneer Life in 1830. M. P. H. C, 

VI, 426-430. Reminiscences of the Saginaw County of that 

date. 
The Saginaw Country. M. P. H. C, VII, 270-271. An article in 

the Detroit Gazette, June 27, 1823, signed A Saginaw Emigrant. 

Protests against unfavorable reports of that region. 
Williams, Ephraim S. Remembrances of Early Days in Saginaw 

in 1833. M. P. H. C, X, 142-147. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 585 

Miller, Judge Albert. Incidents in the Early History of the 

Saginaw Valley. M. P. H. C, XIII, 351-383. 
Jewett, Mrs. Azuhah. L. Pioneer Reminiscences [1831+]. M. 

P. H. C, XXII, 447-450. 
Miller, Judge Albert. Recollections of a Pioneer of Early 

Michigan [1831]. M. P. H. C, XXII, 461-463. 
Sweet, Wm. H. Brief History of Saginaw County. M. P. H. C, 

XXVIII, 481-501. 

Shiawassee County 

Williams, B. O. First Settlement of Shiawassee County. M. P. 

H. C, II, 475-488. From the Owosso Weekly Press, May, 1872. 

By a contemporary. 
Gould, Lucius E. Four papers on the Early history of Shiawassee 

County. M. P. H. C, XXXII, 247-304. 

St. Clair County 

Thompson, Rev. O. C. History of Judge Zephaniah W. Bunce. 

M. P. H. C, I, 434-444. 
Stewart, Aura P. Recollections . . . of things relating to the 

early settlement of Michigan. M. P. H. C, IV, 324-355. 
[Chamberlain, Mrs. Dr. H.]. St. Clair River Settlement. M. P. 

H. C, IV, 355-357. Notes written up by Mrs. E. M. vSheldon. 
[Harrington, Daniel B.] Daniel B. Harrington. M. P. H. C, 

V, 138-143. A reminiscence of early settlement in St. Clair 

County. 
Farrand, Mrs. B. C. Early History of St. Clair County. M. P. 

H. C, V, 493-499. 
Three brief papers on the early settlement of St. Clair County. 

M. P. H. C, VI, 499-503. 
Mitchell, Hon. Wm. T. History of St. Clair County. M. P. 

H. C, VI, 403-416. 
Farrand Mrs. B. C. Reminiscences by Mrs. George Palmer. 

M. P. H. C, VII, 564-566. 
Farrand, Mrs. B. C. Early Days in Desmond and Vicinity 

from Sources written and unwritten. M. P. H. C, XIII, 334- 

342. 
Farrand Mrs. B. C. Early History of St. Clair County [etc.]. 

M. P. H. C, XVII, 430-439. 



586 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

Kinney, Mrs. Jane M. Pioneers of St. Clair County. M. P. 

H. C, XXIX, 170-184. 
HoRTON, C. H. Port Huron s Name. Early History of the Place- 

M. P. H. C, XXIX, 187-189. 

St. Joseph County 

CoFFiNBERRY, S. C. Incidents connected with the First Settlement 
of N ottawa-Sippi Prairie in St. Joseph County. M. P. H. C.> 
II, 489-501. Interesting notes on life in southwestern Michi- 
gan, 1829+. Mainly on relations with the Indians at the 
reservation during the Black Hawk War. 

Cross, Wm. H. Recollections of Early Occurrences about N Ottawa 
Sepe. M. P. H. C, VI, 423-425. 

Driggs, Alfred L. Early Days in Michigan. M. P. H. C, X, 
57-60. 

Kedzie, R. C. The St. Joes. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 412-417. 
Settlement in St. Joseph County, 1826 + • 

Van Buren County 

Lawton, George W. Historical Sketch of Van Buren County. 
M. P. H. C, III, 625-637. 

Washtenaw County 

[Norris, Hon. L. D. History of Washtenaw County.] M. P. 

H. C, I, 327-333. Abstract of a Fourth of July address by 

L. D. Norris, 1874. Contains notes for 1827, from a diary 

kept by Mr. Norris. 
Sessions, J. Q. A. Ann Arbor. A History of its Early Settlement. 

M. P. H. C, I, 333-338. 
[A sketch of the history of Washtenaw County]. M. P. H. C, 

IV, 393-400. A useful compilation from various papers read 

before the Washtenaw County Pioneer Society. 
Geddes, John. Ypsilanti Township. Us Settlement, etc. M. P. 

H. C, IV, 401-404. Useful for early land purchasers. 
Early Settlement of Ann Arbor. Account given to Mrs. E. M. S. 

Stewart in 1852 by Mr. Bethuel Farrand [etc.l. M. P. H. C, 

VI, 443-446. 
Williams, Jeremiah D. History of the Town of Webster. 

[1833+]. M. P. H. C, XIII, 546-567. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 587 

Lay, Ezra D. Condensed Early History; or Beginnings of the 
Several Towns in Washtenaw County. M. P. H. C, XVII, 
450-462. 

Watkins, L. D. Settlement and Natural History of Manchester, 

Michigan. M. P. H. C, XXII, 262-266. 
vSeymour, C. B. Early Days in Old Washtenaw County. M. P. 

H. C, XXVIII, 391-399. 
Watkins, L. D. Settlement of the Township of Bridgewater and 

Vicinity, Washtenaw County. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 568-569. 

Wayne County 

Utley, H. M. Plymouth. The First Settlement — Reminiscences of 
the Early History of the Place— Incidents and Anecdotes. M. P. 
H. C, I, 444-448. 

Clark, George. Recollections. M. P. H. C, I, 501-507. Use- 
ful notes on settlement in Wayne County, about 1817. 

Dort, Titus. .4 Personal Reminiscence. M. P. H. C, I, 507- 
509. Useful notes, 1815-1837. 

Clarkson, D. Pioneer Sketches. M. P. H. C, I, 509-510. 
Useful notes on the township of Plymouth, Wavne County, 
1825-1831. 

Christian, Dr. E. P. Historical Associations Connected with 
Wyandotte and Vicinity. M. P. H. C, XIII, 308-324. An 
excellent article, showing relation between settlement and 
physiographic conditions. 

OsBAND, Melvin D. My Recollections of Pioneers and Pioneer 
Life in Nankin [1818+]. M. P. H. C, XIV, 431-483. 

McMath, J. W. The Willow Run Settlement. M. P. H. C, XIV, 
483-495. 

OsBAND, M. D. History of the Pioneer Church of Nankin, Wayne 
County, Michigan [1825]. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 150-160. 

DETROIT 

Lamb Rev. C. A. Incidents in Pioneer Life in Clinton County. 

M. P. H. C, I, 149-151. 
[Desnoyers, Hon. Peter]. Old Detroit. M. P. H. C. I, 346- 

347. From the Detroit Free Press, February 27, 1876. Bnef 

account of the fire of 1805. vStatemcnt of losses as presented 

by heads of families. 



588 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

ZuG, Mrs. Samuel. Fort Shelby. M. P. H. C, I, 368-371. 

Address, 1872. "Recollections of old Fort Shelby and its sur- 
roundings." 
Trowbridge, Charles C. Detroit, Past and Present: in Relation 

to its Social and Physical Condition. M. P. H. C, I, 371-385. 

Address, 1864. 
Hubbard, Bela. Memoir of Luther Harvey. M. P. H. C, I, 

406-414. "Read before the Detroit Pioneer Society, January, 

1873." Useful notes on settlement, 1802-1821, mainly about 

Detroit. 
The First Presbyterian Church of Detroit. History of the Church 

and Society. M. P. H. C, I, 417-429. Published in the 

Democrat and Inquirer of Detroit, September, 1855. Useful for 

copies of original material. 
Holmes, J. C. The American Hotel, Detroit. M. P. H. C, I, 

431-432. "Read before the Detroit Pioneer Society, January 13, 

1874." 
ZuG, Samuel. Detroit in 1815-16. M. P. H. C, I, 496-501. 
Bates, Hon. George C. By-Gones of Detroit. General Hugh 

Brady. M. P. H. C, H, 573-579. Useful for the "Patriot War" 

of 1837. 
Arnold, Rev. J. M. A Sketch of the History of Methodism in 

Detroit. M. P. H. C, HI, 225-243. 
[McKenney, Thomas L.]. Interesting Letters Written from and 

about Detroit. Some predictions, and how they have been fulfilled. 

M. P. H. C, IV, 89-94. Taken from McKenney's A Tour to 

the Lakes, Baltimore, 1827. The first of the letters is dated 

June 16, 1826. 
Trowbridge, Hon. C. C. The first Savo-Mill in Detroit. M. P. 

H. C, IV, 410. 
History of the Old Fire Department in Detroit. M. P. H. C, IV. 

410-419. 
Phelps, Col. William. Reminiscences of Detroit. M. P. H. C, 

IV, 459-465. Useful from 1835. 
Roberts, Robert E. Detroit. M. P. H. C, IV, 465-466. 

Census 1810-1880. 
The Detroit Waterworks. M. P. H. C, IV, 466-471. An anony- 
mous contribution to the Detroit Post and Tribune, December 15, 

1877. 
Trowbridge, C. C. Detroit in 1819. M. P. H. C, IV, 471-479. 
Roberts, Robert E. Detroit. Sketches of its Early History and 

leading Political Historical Events. M. P. H. C, V, 530-536. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 589 

Fitch, Rev. W., D. D. Reminiscences of Detroit. M. P. H. C, 

V, 536-546. 
A Muster Roll of 1812, with correspondence relating thereto. M. P. 

H. C, V, 553-557. Shows predominance of French. 
Williams, Ephraim S. Detroit Three Score Years ago [etc.]. 

M. P. H. C, X, 84-87. 
Ford, Henry A Historical Detroit. M. P. H. C, X, 88-97. 
The Young Men's Society, [1832 -f]. M. P. H. C, XII, 361-375. 
Territorial census of Detroit, 1827. M. P. H. C, XII, op. p. 461. 
Pioneer Piety. M. P. H. C, XIII, 424-483. 
Detroit in 1814. M. P. H. C, XIII, 503-507. "Extracts from 

articles written in 1853 by Hon. B. F. H. Witherell. Written 

for the Bay City Tribune, by Albert Miller, 1886." 
A Visit with a Lady who knew Detroit as a Frontier Post. M. P. 

H. C, XIV, 535-539. From the Detroit Free Press, March 10, 

1889. ' 
Bates, Hon. George C. By-Gones of Detroit [1833-f ]. M. P. 

H. C, XXII, 305-404. 
Burton C. M. Some of the Benefits that accrued to Detroit from 

the deiastating Fire of 1805. M. P. H. C, XXII, 431-436. 
Burton, C. M. Detroit in the Year 1832. M. P. H. C, XXVIIL 

163-171. 
•Dickinson Moses F. Detroit in 1837. What the City's oldest 

Directory discloses. M. P. H. C, XXVIII, 585-638. A series of 

articles from the Detroit News-Tribune, 1895. 
Burton, C. M. The Moravians at Detroit. M. P. H. C, XXX, 

51-63.' 
Palmer Friend. Detroit in 1827 and Later on. M. P. H. C, 

XXXV, 272-283. 
Smith Mrs. Julia Talbot. Reminiscences of Detroit [18354-]- 

M. P. H. C, XXXV, 682-683. 

MAPS AND ATLASES 

Of the maps and diagrams of Michigan pubHshed before 1835, 
useful for the study of settlement, the following are to be found 
in the General Library of the University of Michigan, the Detroit 
Public Library, the State Library at Lansing and m the Library of 
Congress. They are here chronologically arranged. 
Darby William. Einigrants' Guide [ISII]. Contains a large map 

of Michigan. Shows a fairiy good knowledge of the counties 



590 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

of the Lower Peninsula, but little knowledge of the Saginaw re- 
gion or the relation of Illinois and Indiana with Lake Michigan. 

Darby, William. A Totdr from the City of New York [etc.]. 
[1819]. Contains a map of Michigan apparently engraved for 
this volume . Across the western portion appear the words , ' ' This 
part very imperfectly known." 

FiNLAYSON, J. A. Map of Michigan Territory [1822]. Map No. 36 
in A complete Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Amer- 
ican Atlas [etc.], by Carey, H. C. and Lea, I. Philadelphia, 
1822. 

BucKON, J. A. C. Atlas geographique, statistique, historique et 
chronologique des deux Ameriqties et des iles adjacentes [etc.]. 
Paris, 1825. A translation, with a few additions, of the Finlay- 
son Atlas published at Philadelphia in 1822. Map No. 40 is of 
Michigan Territory. 

Lucas, F. A map of Michigan. No. 75 in A General Atlas con- 
taining Distinct Maps of all the Known Countries in the World 
[etc.]. Baltimore, 1823. 

Gary, J. A map of the Northwest, Michigan [etc.]. No. 57 in 
Gary's New Universal Atlas [etc.]. London, 1824-1825. 

Internal Improvements. A Collection of Maps and Drawings en- 
graved by order of Congress [etc.]. Washington, 1825-1843. No. 
27 shows the road from Monroe to the Miami River (cir. 1829). 
Nos. 40-43 show a plat of the Detroit-Chicago turnpike in four 
sheets, 1829. No. 81 shows the Fort Gratiot Road (Detroit to 
Fort Gratiot), 1827. 

RiSDON, Orange. A map of Michigan was published by him at 
Albany, New York, shortly after 1825. This work appears to 
have been limited to the country south of Saginaw Bay and 
east of the principal meridian. The draft, four miles to an 
inch, appears to have been made by John Farmer. Cf. Far- 
mer, History of Detroit and Michigan (ed. 1884), I, 679-698, 
and M. P. H. C., XXII, 457-460. The maps issued by Farmer 
can be consulted in the Detroit PubHc Library. 

FiNLEY, A. A portion of Michigan Territory. [1826]. No. 11 
in A new American Atlas. Philadelphia, 1826. 

FiNLAYSON, J. Michigan Territory. No. 36 in A complete His- 
torical, Chronological, and Geographical American Atlas [etc.]. 
Philadelphia, Carey and Lea, 1827. 

Wetland, G. F. Michigan. No. 28 in Atlas von America [etc.]. 
Weimar, 1824-1828. The map of Michigan is for the year 
1828. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 591 

Von Schlieben, W. E. A. Gebiet Michigan. No. XIV in Atlas 
von Amerika in 30 Charten [etc.]. Leipzig, 1830. 

Tanner, Thomas R. A New and Authentic Map of the State of 
Michigan and the Territory of Wisconsin [1830]. No. 17 in 
A New American Atlas containing Maps of the Several States of 
the North American Union [etc.]. Philadelphia, H. S. Tanner 
1839. 

Burr, D. H. Michigan, 1831. No. 44 in A New Universal Atlas 
[etc.]. New York, D. S. Stone, [1835?]. 

Young, J. H. The Tourists pocket map of Michigan, exhibiting its 
Internal Improvements, Roads, Distances [etc.]. Philadelphia, 
1835. Commonly cited as the "Mitchell Map." S. Augustus 
Mitchell was the pubHsher. Shows the counties and the chief 
settlements at this date. 



atlases of MICHIGAN 

Walling, H. F. Atlas of the State of Michigan; including Statis- 
tics and Descriptions of its Topography, Hydrography, Climate 
natural and civil History, Railways, Educational Institutions, 
material Resources, etc. Detroit, R. M. and S. T. Tackabury, 
1873, pp. 162, maps 84, in foHo. Very good maps of the counties. 
The articles in the front of the atlas have merit as brief general 
discussions. 

Cram, G. F. Cram's Superior Reference Atlas of Michigan and 
the World. New York and Chicago, G. F. Cram, 1908, pp. 160, 
maps 68, in folio. 

There have been published a large number of atlases of Michi- 
gan counties, the first publishing house in this field being that of 
CO. Titus, Philadelphia, which published atlases of Branch and 
Cass counties in 1872. A little later, the firms of Evarts and 
Stewart, Chicago, and F. W. Beers & Co., New York, entered the 
field, the latter publishing extensively, as late as 1897. Atlases 
of nearly all the countries south of Saginaw Bay were issued 
between 1872 and 1876. This is to be accounted for, probably, 
by local interest in preparations for the centennial year. Begin- 
ning about the World's Fair year, 1893, a new impiilse is evident 
in the appearance of new county atlases, published mainly by 
the following firms: G. A. Ogle and Co., Chicago; American Atlas 
Co., Chicago; E. P. Noll and Co., Philadelphia; National Pub- 
lishing Co., Boston. Latterly, a few local firms have issued 
atlases of their localities, such as R. L. Polk and Co., Grand 
Rapids; W. C. Sauer, Detroit; and Treat Brothers, Adrian. 



592 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEGINNINGS 

The maps in these atlases vary in quahty, but on the whole 
they are reliable for purposes of historical study. Most of them 
are made from the original United States surveys and field notes, 
the originals of which can be consulted at the State Capitol at 
Lansing, where they were deposited after the completion of the 
surveys in 1857. The data furnished by them is of great value 
in reconstructing contemporary topography and physical condi- 
tions of early settlement. 

Most of the atlases contain brief notes on early settlement of 
the various townships, but these must be carefully compared 
with other data if used. 

Very many of these atlases can be consulted in the Detroit 
Public Library and the State Library at Lansing. Almost in- 
variably the atlas of a given county can be obtained from the 
public library at the county seat. The Library of Congress has 
many of them. (See A List of Geographical Atlases in the Library 
of Congress (1909), I, 864-869). 




INDEX 



75 



INDEX 



Academy, at Ann Arbor, 231(n.l61), 243; at Pontiac, 221, 243- 
at Romeo, 171(n.285) 

Ada, 431; monument to Rix Robinson, 436(n.l27) 

Adams, R., Agriculture in Michigan, 69 

Adamsville, 262, 295 

Adrian, 192; settlement, 204, 236-237; waterpower, 26 

Agricultural Society, Detroit (1818), 130(n.l08) 

Agriculture, 489; in Berrien County, 296; at Detroit (1827), 136 
French-Canadian, 104 ft", 108(n.38), 132(n.ll7); in Michiga ; 
compared with New York, 320; in Oakland County, 221; in 
Ottawa County, 441 (n. 145); appeal to small farmer, 47; gettini"^ 
the first crop, 42-44; agrictiltnre in Michigan, 563(Adams)g 
early farmers in Macomb County, 582(Campau); wheat in New', 
York and Michigan, 574(Shearer); see Soils, Oak openings 
Prairies, and names of prairies 

Albion, 349 

Albion College, 349, 487 

Algonac, 162 

Aliens, 240, 469; in Detroit, 147; in eastern shore counties, 184; 
franchise (1835), 88; inducement of democratic local govern- 
ment to, 90; in Southwestern Michigan, 303 

Allegan, waterpower, 27; lumber cut in 1839, 28; settlement, 332- 
334 

Allegan County, bibliography, 575; pine lands, 321; prairies, 318; 
estabhshed and organized, 531; population, 359-363; censuses, 
531, 536 

Allen, John, 208, 230, 324 

Allen, Captain Moses, 268 

Allen's Creek (Washtenaw Co.), 229 

Allen Prairie, settled, 268 

Alphadelphia Association, sketch, 5 80 (Van Buren) 

Amherst College, 311 

American Fur Company, see Fur Trade 

American Hotel, Detroit, article by Holmes, 588 

Anchor Bay, Chippewa Reservation, 103(n.20) 



596 INDEX 

Animals, wild, advantages and disadvantages to settlers, 45-46; 

in Michigan, 565 (Wheeler); in Wayne County, 564(Tibbits) 
Ann Arbor, 356, 393(n.l29), 398, 399, 416, 464; academy, 93; 

Germans, 148; settlement, 228, 586; source of population, 238; 

settlement, 586(Sessions) 
Antislavery, see Slavery 
Apples, in French-Canadian orchards, 106 
Artesian wells, 28(n.87) 
Ash, see Forest 

Ashley, Thomas, birthplace, 184 
Assize of Bread, Detroit (1816), 126(n.93) 
Athens, 354 

Atlas (Genesee Co.), early history, 578(Goodrich) 
Atlases, bibliography, 589, 591 ' 
Auburn (Oaldand Co.), 222 
Augusta, 350 
Avon colony (Oakland Co.), 200, 206 

Baker, Mavor, 368 

"Bald Mountain" (Oakland Co.), 198 

Ball, Daniel, 388 

Ball, John, 416; sketch, 429(n.94) 

Bangor, 324 

Bank of Michigan (Detroit), Iv30(n.l08); Eurotas P. Hastings, 

president, 456 
Banking, bibliography, 569; "wild-cat," 486; in Genesee County, 

400; at Kalamazoo, 344; in Shiawassee County, 387; law of 

1837, 67; effect of Jackson's specie circular, 68; financial history 

of U. S., 546(Dewey) 
Baptists, 487; at Kalamazoo, 345; Carey Mission (Berrien Co.), 

259; mission at Grand Rapids, 421; early history, 573(Chase) 
Bar, see Bench 
Baraga, Frederic, 421 
Barnes, George W., surveyor, 444(n.l56) 
Barry (Jackson Co.), 350 
Barry, William T., 451(n.l85) 
Barry County, bibliography, 576; environment, 412-413; trails, 

418-419; Indians of, 566(Goodyear) ; Slater mission, 422(n.71); 

degree of settlement in 1837, 451-454; settlement (1836-38), 

454-456; established and organized, 531; censuses, 531, 536; 

Barry County Seat Purchase, 456 
"Battle," at Battle Creek, 335(n.l29); article on, by Poppleton, 

577 
Battle Creek, 335, 336, 348, 357; supplies food to Grand Haven, 



INDEX 597 

438(n.l31); relations with Hastin^^s, 456; sandstone at, 13; 

trail through, 419; early history, 577(Van Burcn) 
Baw Beese Indians, 566(Van Burcn) 
Bay City, 379 
Bean Creek, 283, 285 
Bear, see Animals 
Beardsley's Prairie, 262, 274, 293 

Beaubien, Antoine, opposed to widening street in Detroit, 131 
Beebe, Silas, 457 
Beech, see Forest 
Beet sugar, 291 
Belle River, 161, 164 
Bellevue, 336, 357, 418; environment, 412; settlement, 442-444, 

450 

Bemis, E. W., Local Government in Michigan and the Northwest, 
88(n.l37) 

Benac, Joseph (1800), 117(n.65) 

Bench and bar, sketch of early bar in Calhoun and Kalamazoo 
counties 577; sketch of legal profession, 5 74 (Wells); early legal 
profession, 576(Winslow); pioneer lawyers in Lenawee County, 
581 (Stacy); bench and bar in Oakland County, 584(Baldwin) 

Benton Harbor, 299 

Berrien County, bibliography, 576; cold winter of 1842-436(n.20); 
forest, 247; Fort St. Joseph (near Niles), 567(Beeson); 567 
(McCoy) ; settlement, 258-262, 264-266, 275-278, 295-301; estab- 
lished and organized, 531; population (1825), 261; (1830), 271; 
(1834), 278; (1837), 536; source of, 303, 304; censuses, 531, 
536; Pennsylvania-Dutch, 303; fruit growing, 4(n.9) 

Berrien Springs, 297; founded, 264; platted, 275; county scat 
removed to, 276 

Bertrand, 295; settlement, 277; sketch of, 576 

Bibliography, general aids, 543; local history, 543; Government 
publications, 544; newspapers and periodicals, 544, 553; manu- 
scripts, 545; general secondary works, 545; biographies, 549; 
histories of Michigan, 549; county histories, 550; magazines, 
555; travel and exploration, 555; travelers' guides, 558; gaze- 
teers, directories, geographical and statistical works, 559; nat- 
tional and State pulalications, 562; publications of historical 
and geographical societies, 563; pioneer diaries, reminiscences, 
addresses, etc., 564; physiography, climate, fauna and flora, 
564; health, 565; boundaries, 565; Indians, 565; Black Hawk 
War, 566; French Canadians, 566; survey and sale of lands. 
567; navigation, transportation and trade, 567; roads and 
travel, 568; sources of population, 569; banks and banking. 



598 INDEX 

569; government, 570; pioneer press, 571; education, 571; 
slavery, 572; pioneer life, 572; general and miscellaneous, 573; 
counties, 575 ff 

Biddle, Major, 149, 369, 458 (n.210); on early civil history of 
Detroit, 134(n.l21) 

"Biddle City," 457 

Big Prairie Ronde, 312 

Birmingham (Oakland Co.), 223 

Black River, 162, 164, 324 

Black Hawk War, bibliography, 566; general influence on settle- 
ment, 57, 60-61; effect in Detroit, 137; effect in the Kalamazoo 
Valley, 358; effect in the St. Joseph Valley, 252, 256, 271; 
story of, 564(Thwaites) 

Black-walnut, see Forest 

Blissfield, road from, to Petersborough, 209; sketch of Presbyterian 
Church in, 581(Kedzie) 

Blois, Gazetteer of Michigan, 559 

Bossuet, Bishop, ancestor of Father Gabriel Richard, 115(n.61) 

Boundaries, bibliography, 565; dispute with Ohio, 176(n.306); 
dispute with Ohio, 578(Holloway) 

Branch Countv, bibhography, 576; forest, 247; settlement, 268- 
270, 278-283, 287-290; causes of slow settlement, 250; estab- 
lished and organized, 531; population (1834), 283; censuses, 531, 
536; Pennsylvania-Dutch, 303; early hanking, 569(Randall) 

Brady, Gen. Hugh, article by Bates, 588 

Brest, 157 

Brighton, 390; newspaper, 373(n.30) 

Bristol, William P., 454(n.l98) 

Britain, Calvin, 266 

British, post on vSt. Clair River, 116(n.65), 160; influence of 
presents to the Indians, 57; relations with Old Northwest{17 90- 
1829), 570 

Bronson, Jabez, 269 

Bronson, Titus, 352 ; founds Kalamazoo, 345 ; founder of Kalamazoo, 
580(Van Buren) 

Bronson Prairie, settled, 269 

Brooklvn (Jackson Co.), sketch, anon., 579, and by Griswold, 579 

Brooks", Edward, 391 (n. 11 7) 

Brown, Edward, 380(n.57) 

Brown, E. Lakin, autobiographical notes, 575 

Brown, General Jacob, 233 

Brown, John, 380(n.57) 

Brown, Joseph, 203, 235 

Brown University, 341, 345 (n. 167) 



INDEX 599 

Brown, S. R., Western Gazetteer, vS60; characterizes Canadian- 
French settlement, 98; general influence, 54. 
Brownstown (Wayne County), 157, 263 
Brownstown Creek, land claims, 103(n.22) 
Bruckner's Lessee vs. Lawrence, 119(n.66) 
Brush Creek, 324 
Buchanan, 300 
Buffalo, in 1825, 563 (Ball) 

Building materials, clay, sand and gravel, 12; sandstone, 13 
Bunce, Zephaniah W., 184; sketch of, 585(Thompson) 
Burnett, WilHam, at St. Joseph, 265, 266 
Burr Oak, 273, 274 

Burr-oak plains, getting first crop on, 41; soil, 193 
Business, see Trade 
Butler, WilHam, 329 

Byron (Kent Co.), trail through, 419(n.54) 
Byron (Shiawassee Co.), 385 
Byron Company, 386 

Cadillac, La Mottc, 120 

Calhoun County, bibHography, 577; inland lakes, 308; oak open- 
ings, 318; settlement, 340-344, 348-349, 353-354; prairie settle- 
ments, 316-317; relation of Indians and settlers, 573; estab- 
lished and organized, 532; population, 359-363; censuses, 532, 
536; Early days, S11 

Campau, Antoine, 428 

Campau, Joseph, opposes widening of street in Detroit, 131 

Campau, Louis, 375, 377, 423; papered cupola with "wild-cat" 
bills, 68(n.66) 

Campbell, James V., 481(n.27); mentions French wmd mills, 
110; Outlines of the Political History of Michigan, 549 

Canada, source of population, 185 

"Canada settlement" (Eaton Co.), 451 

Canadian-French, see French-Canadians 

Canals, projected in Clinton County, 466; m Grand-Alaple- 
Saginaw Vallev, 21; between Grand and Huron nvers, 347; 
in Macomb County, 29; projected routes in Michigan, 75(n.91)^ 
celebration at completion of Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, 56/ 

Canoe, description of birchen, 572 .^^,t^, j . 

Capitol removal of, from Detroit. 579(Bishop); o/9(Blades); 
579(Goodrich) ; 579(Robson); 579(Williams) - 

Carey Indian Mission (Berrien Co.), founding, 2^2, 2.-)8-260; 
teacher at, 266; influence on settlement of Cass County, 202; 
relations with Grand Rapids mission, 421 



600 INDEX 

Carts, old French, 573 

Cass, Lewis, birthplace, 183; influence on settlement, 50, 52(n.l6); 
relation to Tiffin survey of 1815, 50(n.7), 62; obtains land 
office for Detroit (1818), 62; qualifications as Indian agent, 58; 
expedition to Saginaw country, 371; expedition of 1820, 52, 
201, 251 ; letter respecting Monroe Road, 75(n.92) ; description of 
road in 1822, ibid; plans for Saginaw Road, 76; services in behalf 
of Chicago Road, 76(n.96); member of Cass Company(Monroe 
Co. 1835-36), 155; farm sold (1835), 140; violates fire ordinance 
at Detroit, 128; interest in Carey Mission, 259; instructions to 
McCoy, 421; visits Carey Mission (1827), 260(n.44); on the 
removal of the Indians to the West, 60(n.37); interest in popu- 
lar education, 92, 93(n.l54); favors popular rule, 84; president 
of historical society, 151; influence, 564 (McLaughlin); life, 549 
(McLaughlin), 549(Smith), 549(Young) 

Cass County, surface geologv, 245(n.3); established and organized; 
253, 532; settlement, 262-264, 274, 293-295; first crops, 269; 
population (1825), 261; censuses(1834-37), 536; travel to, from 
Detroit (1828), 568(Edwards); history, 553(Rogers) 

Cassopolis, founding, 275, 294 

Cass River, settlers on, 380 

Catholepistemiad, 152 

Catholics, in Detroit, 147; Shea on, 548; schools in Detroit, 152; 
in Clinton County, 467; mission at Grand Rapids, 421; refining 
influence of priests; see Richard (Father Gabriel) 

Catlin, G. B., Landmarks of Detroit and Michigan, 553; see Ross 

Censuses, of Michigan Territory (1830-34), 535; (1837), 536-539, 
562; of counties (1834-40), 531-534; of Indians (not taxed) 
1837, 539; of Negroes(1837), 539; see Population 

Centerville, 273, 293 

Central Railroad, 81(n.llO); first cars over, 81(n.ll3); influence 
on settlement in Berrien County, 301; discussed at Marshall 
(1833), 343 

Charleston (Kalamazoo Co.), 352 

Charlotte, environment, 412; settlement, 418, 444 

Chapman, Alcott E., birthplace, 183 

Chase, Lew Allen, on roads, traffic and travel in Michigan Terri- 
tory, 79(n.l05) 

Chase, Philander, 281 

Chase, Rev. Supply, A Pioneer Minister, 574 

Chicago, early opinion of, 448(n.l70), 455; central market of 
Middle West, 30; boat line to Grand Haven, 438; treaty of, 
59, 269 

Chicago Road, 76; plat of, in four sheets, in map listed under 
Internal Improvements, 589; influence of survey, 263; early 



INDEX 601 

travel, 207, 254; early travel in St. Joseph Valley, 255-256; 
travel decreased in 1832, 60; influence in Branch County, 280; 
in Hillsdale County, 285; in Washtenaw County, 202; descrip- 
tion of, in Lenawee County, 209; preferred to Territorial Road, 
339; travel (1828), 568(Edwards) ; travel (1834), 569(Goodrich) 

Chicago Trail, 77, 249, 305 

Cholera epidemic (1832), effect on Detroit, 137; death of Father 
Richard, 116(n.61); in Kalamazoo Valley, 357; in St. Joseph 
Valley, 271; cfTect on Territorial vote, 86; epidemic of, in 1834, 
61(n.42); at Detroit, cause, 144; in the Saginaw country, 402 

Christiancy, Isaac P., 481(n.27) 

Christian Creek, 262 

Christmas, in early Ionia, 5 72 (Taylor) 

Church, articles on early churches in the Saginaw Valley, 577; 
early history of churches in Battle Creek, 577(Van Buren); pioneer 
church of Nankin, Wayne County, 587(Osband) a pioneer min- 
ister, 574(Chase); see names of denominations 

"Cincinnatus," advocates change in Territorial gov^ernment, 83 

Claims, British, 118(n.66); French, ll7(n.66); surveyed by U. S., 
119(n.66), 101(n.l4); "gridiron" appearance, 105; at Ypsilanti, 
201; in Genesee County, 376; digested summary, 546 

Clemens, Christian, village named for, 158 

Climate of southern Michigan, 2-9; discussion by Winchell, 548; 
of Detroit, 564(Hubbard) 

Climax Prairie, 313 

Clinton (Lenawee Co.), 237 

Clinton County, bibliography, 577; environment, 413; established 
and organized, 532; censuses, 532, 537; distribution of popula- 
tion(1837), 460; speculation, 461; waterpower settlements on 
the Lookingglass, 462; transportation, 416; hostility of traders 
and trappers, 463; "paper towns" at site of Dewitt, 463-464; 
colony at Duplain on Maple River, 465-466; Maple Rapids, 
466; CathoHc settlement in Westphaha Township, 467 

Clinton River, description, 24; sources, 28; navigation, 29; Navi- 
gation Company, 206(n.45) ; harbor improvement, 31; water 
power, 188; French-Canadian settlements, 98, 99, 101, 102, 103, 
105, 109,; German settlement, 185; canal, 567(Ingersoll) 

Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, projected, 75(n.91) 

Coal basin, 10, 13 

Cochrane, Sylvester, 446 

Coldwater, settlement, 279; in 1831, Sll ; early days, 577(Haynes) 

Coldwater Settlement (Genesee Co.), 381(n.65) 

Colleges, see Education, Albion, Hillsdale, Kalamazoo, Olivet 

Colonies, methods of founding, 242 

Combe, Pierre Francois (1776), 117(n.66) 



602 INDEX 

Communism, in Kalamazoo County, 580 (Van Buren) 
Commerce, at Detroit, after War of 1812, 127; at Detroit(1827), 

136; at Detroit(1837), 143; at St. Joseph, 276, 298; on Upper 

Great Lakes, 72(n.81) 
Common School Assistant, The, 93 
Comstock, Horace H., 349 
Comstock village, 331, 336, 349, 351, 356; early history, 580(Van 

Buren) 
Conant, Dr. Harry, birthplace, 183 
Concord (Jackson Co.), early history, 580(McGee) 
Congregationalists, 486; at Grand Rapids, 430; in Kalamazoo 

County, 352; at Romeo, 170; at Vermontville, 445-446; work 

of John D. Pierce, 341; sketch of Congregationalism , 575(Pierce), 

574(Hurd) 
Connecticut, settlers from, 183, 238, 273, 279, 329, 381, 464, 474ff 
Constantine, platted, 273, 274; mentioned 291, 292 
Constitution of 1835, adopted, 87; analysis, 87(n.l32) 
Cook's Prairie, 316, 355 

Cooley, Thomas M., 481(n.27); Michigan, 549 
Cooper, James Fenimore, 318, 325, 349(n.l87) 
Cooper (Kalamazoo Co.), early history, 580 (Walker) 
Com, yield of first crop on different soils, 42, 43; first crops in 

St. Joseph County, 267; first crop on White Pigeon Prairie, 269 
Corunna, 386, 389 
Cottonwood Swamp, 253 

Counties, "Cabinet," established in southwestern Michigan, 266 
County government, 89 

County seats, legislation affecting the establishment of, 89(n.l43) 
Crane, Flavins, 391 (n. 11 7) 

Crary, Isaac E., 94, 340, 341, 442; sketch, 571 (Comstock) 
Creeks, see Bean, Christian, Hog, Otter, Pettibone, Sandy, 

Woodruff's, Drainage, Waterpower 
Croghan, on conditions near Detroit (1765), 108 

Danforth, Ephraim B., 458 (n.214) 

Darby, William, opinion of Detroit, (1818), 129; on immigration 

in 1818, 52; Tour, 556; Emigrant's Guide, 559 
Dartmouth College, 282 

Davison (Genesee Co.), early history, 578(Townsend) 
Dearborn, on route of Central Railroad, 82(n.ll5) 
Delegate to Congress, first(1819), 84, 116(n.61), 149 
Delta (Eaton Co.), 449; early settlement, 578 (Ingersoll); effort to 

found college at, 5 72 (Williams) 
De Tocqueville, inpressions of Oakland County (1833), 195; of 

Saginaw country, 369 



INDEX 603 

Detroit, bibliography, 587; climate, 5(n.l4); discussion of climate 
by Hubbard, 564; settlement, 116-153; British opinion of 
obstacles to settlement (1793), 111; conditions in 1803 121- 
effects of fire of 1805, 122; fire of 1805, 587(Dcsnovers); benefits 
from fire of 1805, 589(Burton); old fire department, 588; water- 
works, 588; pubHc improvements (1835-37), 144; prominence in 
War of 1812, 49; effects of War of 1812, 122; Fort Shelby, 588 
(Zug); growth of, from 1812 to 1815, 122; new city plan, 123; 
streets, 124; roads, 125; frontier character of life in 1818, 125- 
130; lands near, sur\'eyed, 62; explorations near, in 1818, 52; 
relation to the settlement of Oakland County, 199, 200; rela- 
tion to settlement of Washtenaw County, 202; early politics, 
588(Roberts) ; misrule of the Governor 'and Judges, 83, 85 
(n.l24); Detroit Gazette pubhshes proceedings and laws of the 
Legislative Council, beginning 1824, 85(n.l26); arrival of first 
steamboat at, 70; American Hotel, 588(Holmes); port of, 567 
(Zug); ferry service, (1825 + ) , 569(Palmer); sources of popula- 
tion, 146-149; education and culture, 149-153; shipbuilding, 31! 
effects of land sales, and steam navigation on Lake Erie. 130- 
134; trade with interior, 208, 220; Old Bank of Michigan (1818), 
570(Palmer); Detroit and vSt. Joseph Railroad, 80; wind mills, 
WO; first sawmill, 588(Trowbridge) ; census (1827), 589; (1830), 
180; growth from 1825 to 1837, 134, 146; cholera epidemic 
(1832), 61; MacCabe's directory (1837), 561; early colonization, 
566 (Hubbard); Moravians, 589(Burton); French-Canadian 
settlements, 98, 101, 109; French-Canadian opposition to 
widening streets, 113; sketch of French-Canadians (1806), 566 
(Witherell) ; early schools, 571 (Wilkins) ; 57 1 (Williams) ; academy, 
subjects taught, 108(n.36); historical society, 574(Holmes); 
Young Men's Society, (1833), 151(n.l98), 589; Detroit Gazette, 
early influence, 55; Pioneer Piety 589; Methodism, 588(Amold); 
First Presbyterian Church, 588; slavery, 572(Girardin); notes on 
history (1805-1815), 574; old account book of Mack and Conant, 
567(Hoyt) ; history, bv Ross and Catlin, 553; sketches, bv Dewey, 
575 

Dewitt, 461, 464 

Dexter, Samuel W. (Washtenaw Co.), 225(n.l30), 232(n.l65), 
372, 378 

Dexter, Samuel (Ionia), 420, 432 

Dexter village, 356; waterpower, 26; settlement, 232; town meet- 
ing to consider canal project (1827), 75(n.91) 

Diseases, due to imprttdences of settlers, 310; in Kalamazoo 
Valley, 357; in Saginaw country, 367; see Healthfulness 

Dixboro (Washtenaw Co.), 233 

Drainage, detenninants, 193; creeks as distributors of, 27; springs 



604 INDEX 

and lakes as regulators, 28, 189; relation to topography, 22-*26; 
23(n.75); of Eastern shore counties, 96; of the Kalamazoo 
Valley, 321-324; of the vSt. Joseph Valley, 245; of Wayne 
County, 177; general discussion, by Winchell, 548 

Dry Prairie, 317, 353, 354 

Dundee, 173 

Dunes, relation to settlement, 35 

Dutch, from Pennsylvania, 303 

Eaton County, bibliography, 578; physical environment, 411; 
established and organized, 532; first entered, 417; transporta- 
tion, 418; trip to, from Vermont (1838), 569(Hinman); censuses, 
532, 537; Bellevue, 442; Charlotte, 444; Vemiontville, 444; 
Eaton Rapids, 449; river settlements above Eaton Rapids, 449; 
distribution of population (1837), 450; sources of earlv settlers, 
450 

Eaton Rapids, 418; mineral springs, 412(n.31); settlement, 449 

Education, bibliography, 571; Father Richard's interest in, 115; 
academy at Detroit, 108(n.36); conditions among French- 
Canadians, 116(n.64); national land grants, 92, 342; legislation 
of 1827, 93; The Log Schoolhouse Era, 573(Van Buren); educa- 
tion at Grand Rapids, 430; in Vermontville colony, 445; Higher 
Education, 562 (McLaughlin); see Academy, Colleges, University 

Edwardsburg, settlement, 262, 274, 293 

Ellis, Edward D., birthplace, 184 

Elm, see Forest 

Ely, Elisha, 333(n.ll7) 

English, 474, 475, 476; in Branch County, 280; in Lenawee County, 
241; in Oakland County, 241, 242; at Portland (Ionia Co.), 
436; in the St. Joseph Valley, 304; in Washtenaw County, 241 

Episcopalians, 431 (n. 102) history of the Episcopal Church in 
Michigan, 5 74 (Trowbridge) 

Erie, Lake, opening of steam navigation, 31, 70; early steamboats 
on, 568; navigation on, before 1829, 70(n.71); marine of, 567 
(Dewey) 

Erie Canal, opening(1825), influence, 72; general influence, 
56(n.23), 223, 372; on growth of Detroit, 134; on settlement 
of Macomb County, 159; on growth of Monroe, 154; impulse 
to stage lines, 76(n.95) 

Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad, 80-82, 237 

Ecorse River, French-Canadian settlement, 100, 102, 109, 117 

Evans, Estwick, opinion of Michigan(1818), 53; opinion of Detroit 
(1818), 129; describes travel on Monroe Road(1818), 75(n.92); 
Pedestrians Tour, 556 

Evans, Musgrove, 203, 235 



INDEX 005 

Farmer, John, influence of his early maps of Michigan, 55; Emi- 
grants' Guide, 559 

Farmer, Silas, History of Detroit and Michigan, 549 

Farmington (Oakland Co.), 224; settlement, 242, 583 

Fauna, see Animals 

Felch, Indians of Michigan, 565 

Fenton, WilHam M., 390 

Fentonville, 390, 403 

Ferries, at Detroit(1825, 1830, 1836), 142(n.l59, 160), 568 

Ferry, Rev. William M., 437; sketch, 584 

Ferry, Detroit to Windsor (1825 + ), 569(Palmer); at Flint, 376 

"Fever and ague," early theory of malarious diseases, 8, 9(n.29); 
theory of the traveler Hoffman, 9; Territorial law against flood- 
ing green timber, 9; sickness in Kalamazoo Valley, 357; Fever 
and Ague, 565 (Van Buren) 

Finance, municipal (Detroit, 1834), 138; see Money, Banking 

Fish, influence on settlement, 325 

Fisheries, see Lakes, Great; and Lakes, inland 

Flat Rock, 157, 177 

Fletcher's "Code," 89(n.l40) 

Flint, 376. 380, 382-383, 395, 402, 403, 404; trading post, 375; 
"port of," 397(n.l43); Flint River Gazette, 373(n.30); early 
history of Flint, 5 78 (Thompson); development, 578(Bates) 

Flint River, 398 

Flora of southern Michigan, 5(n.l5); early flora, 5 65 (Wheeler); 
see names of genera and species 

Flour, early shipments of, from Michigan, 56 

Fords, influence on settlement, in Kalamazoo Valley, 325; at 
"Grand Traverse," 376 

Foreign-born, see Aliens 

Forest, relation to settlement, 35, 43; variety of trees, 35; hard 
and soft wood belts, 37; density of hardwood belt, 39; influence 
on climate, 6-7; relation of variety of timber to kinds of soil, 
37; to crops, 38; in Barry County, 413; in Eaton County, 411; 
in Ingham County, 413; in Kent County, 408, 409; in Oakland, 
Washtenaw and Lenawee counties, 190, 193, 216; in the St. 
Joseph Valley, 247, 248; relation to settlement, 35-45; obstacle 
to settlers in getting first crop, 40; destruction of, in Southern 
Michigan, 573 

Forest lands, settlement of, in Berrien County, 277, 300, 301; in 
Branch County, 280; in Ingham County, 456; in the Kalamazoo 
Valley, 320; in the Saginaw country, 365 

Fort Dearborn, built, 265; massacre, influence of, 57 

Fort Gratiot, 166 

Fort Gratiot Road, 163, 166 



606 INDEX 

Fort St. Joseph, near Niles, 567(Beeson); 567 (McCoy) 

Fort Shelby, 588(Zug) 

Fort Wayne (Indiana), 282; trail from, 250, 253; settlers from, 259 

Franchise (1819), 84; (1835), 87; municipal (Detroit, 1824), 
133(n.l21) 

Franklin(Oakland Co.), 224(n.l27) 

French-Canadians, 94, 174, 401 (n. 162); bibliography, 566; French- 
Canadians in U. S., 555(Shea); in Berrien County, 258(n.40), 
304; at Bertrand, 277; in Detroit, 148, 149(n.l90); number at 
Detroit (1827), 135(n.l24); at Monroe, 156; at St. Clair, 161; 
at St. Joseph (Berrien Co.), 265; in Saginaw County, 379; in 
the Saginaw country, 375; at Ypsilanti(1809), 199, 201; in 
eastern counties, 95-116; in the St. Joseph Valley, 251; opposed 
to changes in old regime, 131; oppose changes in Territorial 
government, 84, 86; whitefishing, 31-32 

French Gazette, advertised at Detroit, 113(n.55) 

Frenchtown, 153, 175; massacre at (1813), 567(Dudley) 

Friends, Society of, see Quakers 

Fruit belt, climatic conditions, 4 

Fur trade, 326, 329, 376, 377; at Chicago, 455; at Detroit, 126; 
at Grand Haven, 436, 437; at Grand Rapids, 421; in Grand 
River Valley, 423; at Ionia, 432; in Muskegon County, 441; 
at St. Joseph (Berrien Co.), 265; in the Saginaw country, 367, 
374, 375 

Gaines, trail, 419 

Galesburg, 350 

"Galien woods," 301 

Geloster (Kalamazoo Co.), 352 

Genesee County, bibliographv, 578; established and organized, 

532; settlement, 380-384, 401, 402; censuses, 532, 537 
"Genesee country," in New York, 481 
Genesee Prairie, 313, 315 
Geneva, 292, 294 

Geography, relation to settlement, 1 
Geoloc^y 10-22; of the Great Lakes, 21(n.67); first geological 

expedition (1837), ll(n.35) 
Germans, 475, 476; in Berrien County, 304; in Detroit, 147, 148; 

in Macomb County, 185; in Monroe County, 185; in Saginaw 

County, 379, 380; in the Saginaw country, 375; in Washtenaw 

County, 241; in Wayne County, 185; immigration to U. 5., 555; 

immigration, 546(Eggerling), 547(Hesse), 547(Koemer), ' 547 

(Loeher), 563(Levi), 569(Ten Brook) 
Gibraltar, 157 
Gilead, settlement, 282 



INDEX 607 

Gilead, Lake, 282 

Glacial action, effect on soil formation, 15; on topography, 19; 
on drainage, 189; geographical influence, 563(Hubbard); 'dia- 
grams of ice lobes, 21(n.67); see Lakes, Great 

Godfroy, Gabriel, on the lower Huron, 100, 101 (n. 14) 

Godfroy, Richard, 377(n.42, 43) 

Goguac Prairie, 316, 317, 337 

Goodrich, 384 

Goodwinsville (Branch Co.), 289(n.l83) 

Gourdneck Prairie, 312, 313 

Government, Territorial, bibliography, 570; pubHc acts relating 
to Michigan Territory, 507; Ordinance of 1787, 563(Haight); 
Laws of the Territory of Michigan, 562; influence of Territorial 
government on settlement, 82-90; comparison with New York 
and New England, 481; comity government, 89; township 
organization, in the Kalamazoo Valley, 361 ; townships organized 
in Southwestern Michigan, 266; municipal government (Detroit, 
1824), 134(n.l21) 

Graham, Benjamin, surveyor, 200 

Grand Blanc, 376, 381, 385, 395, 398, 402 

Grand Haven, 430; comparison of temperatures with those at 
Milwaukee, 3; at Grand Rapids, and Ionia, 5; trail to, 418; 
fur trade, 436; Grand Haven Company, 437, 439; settlement, 584 

Grand Prairie, 313 

Grand Rapids, physical environment, 408; limestone at rapids, 13; 
plaster industry, 14; waterpower, 27; trails to, 418, 419; mis- 
sion, 421-422; first ''Yankee' family, 581(Baxter); settlement, 
421-431; fur trade, 423; new impulse of 1833, 424; early reports 
of, 425; waterpower developed, 426; manufacture, 427; trade, 
427; speculation in village lots, 428; panic of 1837, 428; popu- 
lation, (1837), 429; schools and churches, 430; early history, 
580(Little) ; 580(Withey) ; Baxter's History of, 552 ; Goss' History 
of, 553 

Grand River, description, 25; harbor at mouth, 30; navigation, 
29-30, 417, 433(n.ll5), 420-421; goods hauled on the ice, 420; 
settlements on, in Ottawa County, 440 

Grand River Region, physical environment, 407-414; first reports 
of, 414-415; settlement, 407-467 

Grand River Road, 395-396 

Grand River Trail, 385, 390, 396, 415, 464 

Grand River Valley, beginnings, 581 (Baxter); Indians of, 566 
(Goss); travel to (1833), 569(Tower); Memorials of, 553(Everett) 

"Grand Traverse" (Genesee Co.), 376, 382(n.71), 383(n.77), 395 
(n.l34) 

Grandville, 419(n.54), 430, 431, 437 



608 INDEX 

Grapes, wild, 44 

Grass and forage plants, 44 (n.l53) 

Grass Lake, 350; marsh near, impediment to travel, 338 

Graves, B. E., 481(n.27) 

Greeley, surveys French claims, 101 (n. 14) 

Greeley, Horace, 32 7 (n. 93) 

Green Lake, trail, 419 

Green Oakville, 393 

Green, township of, 91, 270 

Greenville, Treaty of(1795), 119 

Grosse Isle, French-Canadian settlement, 117 

Grosse Pointe, French-Canadian settlements, 99 

Guide books to the Great Lakes region, 71; guide for English Emi- 
grants to America{lS20) , influence, 54(n.20) • 

Guilford, Erastus, 316 

Gull Prairie, 313, 315, 331, 352, 418, 419, 444(n.l56); Indians of, 
565 (Little) 

Gun Plains, 331 

Gypsum, 13 

Habitans, see French-Canadians 

Hamilton College(N. Y.) 390 

Harbors, at St. Joseph, 276, 298; at Monroe, 156; at Mt. Clemens, 

160; see names of rivers 
"Harlow," village of Utica, Macomb County, 171(n.286) 
Harrington, Daniel B., sketch, 585 (Harrington) 
Harrison, Basil, 315 
Hastings, Eurotas P., 455(n.202), 456 
Hastings, settlement, 455 
Hathaway, William H. Evolution of the Counties of Michigan, 

89(n.l42) 
Harvey, Luther, Memoirs of, 588(Hubbard) 
Healthfulness of Michigan climate. 6-7; unfavorable reports, 8 
Heydenburk, Martin, sketch of, 574(Comstock) 
Hickory, see Forest 

Hillsdale, settlement, 286; comity seat removed to, 286 
Hillsdale College, 487 
Hillsdale County, bibliography, 578; topography, 244; height of 

moraine, 21; oak openings, 247; established and organized, 

532; settlement, 268-269, 283-287; cause of slowness of 

settlement, 250; Baiv Beese Indians, 566(Van Buren); censuses, 

532, 537 
Hinsdale, B. A., The Old Northwest, 557 
Historical Society, in Detroit(1828), 151; Historical Society of 

Michigan, 574(Holmes) 



INDEX 609 

Hodunk, 281 

Hoffman, C. F.. A Winter in the West, SS1 ; impressions of Detroit, 

149; impressions of Monroe village, 154, 155 
Hogaboam, The Bean Creek Valley, 553 
Hog Creek, 281 

Homer, 312, 353; name, 317; history, 553 (Lane) 
Honey, wild, 44 

Houghton, Douglass, report, 366(n.9) 
House Carpenters and Joiners' Beneficiary Society, 143 
Howell, Judge Thomas, 391 

Howell, settlement, 390-394, 406; newspaper, 373(n.30) 
"Hoxey Settlement" (Macomb Co.), 169 
Hubbard, Bela, geological expedition to the Saginaw country, 366 

(n.9), 378; on Canadian-French thriftlessness, 107; Memorials 

of a Half-Century, 547 
Hubbard, Gurdon S., Journey from Montreal to Mackinac and 

Chicago (1818), 568; Reminiscences (1818), 569 
Hubbard, Samuel, 333(n.ll7) 
Hull, Abijah, survej^or, 123(n.83) 
Hull, General Isaac, difficulties of, in transporting troops from 

Miami to Detroit in 1812, 74 
Huron River, 214; description, 24; waterpower, 188, 232; navi- 
gation, 29, 207, 228; French-Canadian settlement, 100; relation 

to settlement of Washtenaw County, 202 
Hyde, Milton, 222 
Illinois, immigration from, 52 

Immigration, causes, 490-493; 545(Bimey), 545(Bishop), 546 
(Bromwell),_ 547(McMaster); checks and stimuli, 493-497; 
effect on business in Detroit, 139; immigration to U. S., 555; revo- 
lutions in Europe, 555; Ireland in 1834, 555; routes of, from 
eastern States, 546(Brighani), 547(Goodiich); immigration to 
West, 555 (Mayo); main movements to Southwestern Alichigan, 
257: German, immigraiicn, 569 (Ten Brook;, 563(Levi); see 
Dutch, Englishi Germans, Irish, Scotch 

Imprisonment for debt, abohshed, 89 

Indiana, settlers from, 52, 250, 257, 262, 263, 264, 300, 301, 314 

Indians, bibliography, 565; original papers on relations with 
British{17 90-1829) , 570; receive presents from the British, 57; 
visits to Maiden for presents, 58(n.28); character and condi- 
tion of, in Michigan, 57(n.27); Bureau of American Ethnology, 
18th Annual Report, 562; relations with National Government, 
57; depredations of, 57; relations mth settlers, 57-61, 325; 
guide from Dexter to Ionia, 432; relations with settlers, 573, 
BS'StBrunson), 516'5(ThDrpfe); mission in Btniien Cbunty, 25S; 
77 



610 INDEX 

clearings in Kent County, 408; eariy village at vSaline (Wash- 
tenaw Co.), 232; in the Saginaw country, 374(n.32); in Genesee 
County, 375; in the St. Joseph Valley, 251; Ottawa Indians, 
436(n.'l26); census of Indians not taxed (1837), 539; treaties, 
schedules of(1795-1837), 520; minor treaties, 59(n.35); map 
showing main cessions(1807-36), 59(n.35); removal of, to West, 
59; see Missions, Treaties, and names of treaties (Chicago, 
Detroit, Greenville, Saginaw, Washington) 

Indian Village (Romeo), 169(n.277) 

Ingham County, bibliography, 579; environment, 413; cstabHshed 
and organized, 532; settlement, 456-460; censuses, 532, 537 

Internal improvements, system of, projected 1837, 81(n.ll2); 
historical sketch of, 563 (Keith); federal land grants for, 567 
(Bliss); see Roads, Canals, Railroads, and names of these 

Ionia, 376, 410, 416, 418, 430, 431; journey of first settlers to, 569 
(Tower); travel to, from Herkimer, N. Y., 568(Dye); land-office, 
433; settler of, goes to Grand Haven, 437; Christmas in, 572 
(Taylor) 

Ionia County, bibliography, 579; physical environment, 410-411; 
established and organized, 532; settlement, 431-436; sources 
of first settlers, 435; censuses, 532, 537 

Irish, 475; in Detroit, 147; in Eaton County, 451; in Oakland 
County, 238; in Lenawee County, 241; in Saginaw County, 
379 

Isothenns of Michigan, 5 

Jackson, Andrew, effect of financial policy, 67-69 

Jackson, 326, 346, 418; ford in river, 27; settlement, 325; sketch of 

city, 5 79 (Shoemaker), 579(Little) 
Jackson County, 354; l^ibliography, 579; topography and geology, 

318(n.58); sandstone along vSandstone Creek, 13; drainage, 324; 

oak ofjenings, 318; "wet prairies," 306, 307, 318; travel in, 

338; estabHshed and organized, 532; settlement, 346, 350, 357; 

population, 359-363, 532,. 537 
Jameson, Mrs., impressions of Detroit (183 7), 146; impressions of 

St. Clair region, 163 
Jay Treaty (1796), 120 
Jefferson, Mark S. W., on expansion of Michigan, based on county 

organization, 89(n.l42) 
Jefferson, Thomas, commemorated in name of Jefferson Avenue, 

Detroit, 123(n.83) 
Jefferson Avenue, Detroit, conditions near(1827), 136; prices of 

lots (1835), 140; appearance(lS37), 146 
Jenkins, Baldwin, 261 



INDEX 611 

Jenks, W. L. History and Meaning of County Names in Michimn 
89(n.l42); History of St. Clair County, 161(n.243) 

Jesuits, at St. Joseph, 265 

Jewett, Eleazer, 398(n.l47) 

Johnson, Norman, 379(n.53) 

Johnson, Sir WilHam, transports troops from Niagara to Detroit 
(1761), 74 

Jones, Beniah, 255, 268 

Jonesville, sandstone at, 13; founded, 268; pioneer scene 255- 
settlement, 283, 285 

Jouett, Indian Agent at Detroit, 97(n.4) 

Judd, Philu E., early map of Michigan, 56(n.23) 

Kalamazoo, 27, 327, 344, 355, 418; land office, 271; settlement, 
326; relations with Hastings, 456 

Kalamazoo College, 345, 487 

Kalamazoo County, bibliography, 580; topography, 306; prairies, 
312; first notice of, 313; estaJDhshed and organized, 533; Kal- 
amazoo Emigration Society of Michigan, 352; settlement, 344- 
346, 349-353, 351, 355; relations of Indians and settlers, 573; 
population, 359-363, S3Z, 537 

Kalamazoo River, 25, 321-322; navigation, 29; influence on settle- 
ment, 326-336, 347 

Kalamazoo Valley, physiography, 305; drainage, 306; inland lakes, 
308; sickness, 309; soil, 310; prairies, 310-312; sources of popu- 
lation, 312; first notice of, 313, 315; settlement, 568 (Thompson) 

Keating, report on Carey Mission, 259 (n. 42) 

Kearsley Creek, 384 

Keelerville(Van Buren Co.), 335 

Kent, Chancellor, 430(n.97) 

Kent County, bibliography, 580; physiography, 564(Ball); gypsum 
beds, 13; soil, 407; forest, 408; established and organized, 5ii\ 
settlement, 421-431; censuses, 532, 537 

Kensington (Oakland Co.), 224, 397(n.l42j 

Kentuclcv, soldiers in War of 1812, 49; settlers from, 257, 301, 
314, 3i6 

Kenyon College, Ohio. 282 

Ketchum, Sidney, 340 

Knaggs, Whitmore, 377 

Knaggs' Place, 377 

Labor, increasing demand for, at Detroit (1835), 142; wages, at 
Dctroit(1819-21), 130; Working Men's Society, in Washtenaw 
County, 22S(n.l50) 

Lafayette (Van Buren Co.), 324 



612 INDEX 

La Grange, 293 

La Grange Prairie, population (1830), 271 

Lake Creek, 435 

Lakes, Great, origin of basins, 30(n.98); bibliography of, ibid.; 
general climatic conditions of region 5(n.l6); modifying effect 
on climate, 3; relation to settlement, 30-32; beginning of steam 
navigation, 70; early transportation on, 254; early navigation, 
568(Barber); navigation of (1823), 567; (1830), 329; early com- 
merce on, 5 68 (Bancroft); early days on, 5 64 ( Walker) ; early 
traveling on, 567(Massey); Gurdon S. Hubbard's journey (1818), 
568; fisheries, 31; history of, 21(n.67); story of, 546(Channing 
and Lansing) 

Lakes, inland, regulators of drainage and waterpower, 189; ad- 
vantages for settlement, 32-34; influence on settlement, 196; 
in Branch County, 285; in Kalamazoo Valley, 308; in the St. 
Joseph Valley, 246 

Lamont (Ottawa Co.), 440 

Lands, early reports, 50-56; the Tiffin report of 1815, vSO; Monroe's 
report to Jefferson, 51; report from the Raisin River, 172; 
conditions in Michigan before 1818, 62(n.45); survey of, in 
1816, 52; early surveys, 567(Cannon), 56 7 (Wood ward); in .south- 
western Michigan, 266; rectangular system of survey described, 
62(n.46); laws regulating sale of land, 63; credit system dis- 
continued, 64; opening of land sales at Detroit, 62; first land 
sales, Sdl; public land sales, 62-69; sales at Detroit(1818), 133; 
hampered by French, 131; reaction on city, 132 140; at De- 
troit(1820-1836), 138(n.l41); at Detroit in 1835, 138; Detroit 
city lots (1835), 140; sales near Mt. Clemens, 160; amount 
of sales 1825-37, 65-66; speculations, 66-67; prices of lots at 
Ypsilanti, 228; prices of land at Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo Co., 
(1833), 351; speculation in Eaton County, 450; speculation at 
Grand Rapids, 428; speculation at Ionia. 433; speculation in 
the Saginavv' country, 400: specuJators encourage railroads m 
order to sell land, 79: general discussion, ;pw&/tc domain., 546 
rDcnaldson) : Ivlichigan Land Agenc3'' (D"etroit): 346: land 
grants for common schools, 342; federal grants for education, 
57 1 (Knight) ;/£'c?(?ra/ grants for internal improvements, 567 (Bliss) ; 
land and national politics, 547(Meigs); see Claims, Forest land, 
Oak Openings, Prairies 

Land office, race to, 462; at Detroit(1818), 62; at Monroe(1823), 
63; at White Pigeon (1831), 63; at Kalamazoo (1834), 63; at 
Flint (1836), 63; at Ionia(1836), 63 

Lanman, James H., History of Michigan, 550 

Lansing, waterpow-er, 414; settlement, 457; travel to (1847), 569 
(Miller) ; Cowles' Past and Present of, bS^ ; see Capitol 



INDEX 613 

Lapeer, 284 

Lapeer County 384 401, 402, 403; bibliography, 581; established 
and organized, 533; censuses, 533, 537 

La Plaisance Bay Turnpike, 174(n.296) 

La Plaisance Bay Road, 209 

La Riviere aux Cignes, 98(n.9) 

LavSalle, at St. Joseph, 265 

Latitude and longitude of southern Michigan, 1 

Law, see Bench and Bar 

Lawrence, Jeremiah, birthplace, 183 

Lawrence village, 324 

Laws, of Michigan Territory, reflect the spirit of eastern states 88 

Legislation, Territorial, (1835-37), brief digest of, 87(n 132) ' 

Leib, report on Carey Mission, 260 

Lenawee County, bibliography, 581; topograph\% 196; soil, 194- 
estabhshed and organized, 533; settlement, 203*, 233-238- 
transportation to, 208; travel to, from Buifalo, N. Y. (1829) 
568(Dewey); frontier extension (1823-37), 216-217; first rail- 
road, 80-82; censuses, 533, 531 ; history , 549(Knapp and Bonner), 
549(Whitney and Bonner); Bean Creek Valley, 553(Hogaboam) 

Leverett, Frank, 3(n.6) 

Le Roy, 381 

Lewis, "Yankee," 454; hostelry at Yankee Springs, 576(White) 

Libhart Creek, 435 (n. 120) 

Library, at Detroit (1837), 150 

Library Company of the City of Detroit(1818), 130(n.l08) 

Limestone, at Bellevue, 443; at Grand Rapids, 409 

Litchfield (Hillsdale Co.), early history, 579(Riblet) 

Little, Daniel, 379(n. 53) 

Little Prairie Ronde, 262 

Little Springs (Oakland Co.), 200 

"Livingston Center," 391 

Livingston County, 390-394, 401, 402, 405; bibhography, 582; 
established and organized, 533; censuses, 533, 537 

Lockport, 292 

Long, Major, expedition to the source of the St. Peter's, 259(n.42) 

Lookingglass River, 416 

Lotteries, in Detroit, (1805), 150 (n. 195) 

Lowell, 431; in Baxter's History, 552 

Lumbering, 192; impulse to settlement, 36; in Allegan County, 
334 ; in Kent County, 408 ; in Kalamazoo Valley, 32 1 ; in Saginaw 
countr}^ 398; on the St. Clair River, 161, 162; river transporta- 
tion of logs, 28 

Lyceum, at Detroit (18 18), 130(n.l08); (1837), 150 



614 INDEX 

Lymbruner, agent of the Province of Canada, on Detroit settle- 
ment, 111 

Lyon, Lucius, 345, 397(n.l42), 414, 433; sketch, 580(White); 
letters, 575 

Lyons, 411, 434-435, 467 

Mack, Andrew, 389 

Mack and Conant, old account book, 567(Hoyt) 

Mackinac, 370; climate compared with New York, 4(n.l0); to 

Detroit by steamboat, 70; travel to, from Rome, N. Y., 569 

(Haynes); Ferry mission, 437; Straits of, 254 
Macomb County, bibliography, 569; soil, 71(n.58); established 

and organized, 533; settlement, 157-160, 166-171; Saline Creek 

settlement induced bv presence of salt, 12; early hanking, 569 

(Miller); population " (1830), 180; (1834), 181; (1837), 182; 

censuses, 533, 537; sources of popvilation, 185 
McComb, William(1776), 117(n.66) 
McDougall, C, advertises lots for sale in St. Clair(1818), 161 

(n.241) 
McLaughlin, Higher Education in Michigan, 562 
Macon River, 174, 176 
Madison, James, recommendation respecting Michigan bounty 

lands, 51 
Mails, transportation of, 568 (Mitchell) 
Maine, settlers from, 263, 350(n.l91), 438, 474ff 
Manchester (Washtenaw Co.), settlement, 233; settlement, 587 

(Watkins) 
Manufacture, at Detroit, after War of 1812, 127; at Detroit 

(1827), 136; growth at Detroit(1837), 143; at Monroe, 156; 

glass, at Mt. Clemens, 159 
Manuscripts, bibliography, 545 
Maps, bibliography, 589; contour of Monroe County, 22(n.72); 

soils of Michigan, 16(n.58) 
Maple, see Forest 
Maple Rapids, 467 
Maple River, 466 

Maple village (Ionia Co.), 434(n.ll9) 

Marietta (Ohio), settlers from, 184; source of Detroit's popula- 
tion, 146 
Marine City, 161, 162 
Marshall, 335, 336, 340, 357, 358, 418; relations with Hastings, 

456; sandstone, 13; effort to found College, 572 (Williams) 
Martineau, Harriet, impressions of Detroit (1836), 144(n.l69), 145 

(n.l75), 149; describes travel on Chicago Road(1836), 77; im- 



INDEX 615 

pressions of Ypsilanti, 228; impressions of Ann Arbor, 230; 
impressions of Tecumsch village, 23vS; im])ressions of Sturgis 
and White Pigeon prairies, 291 ; impressions of Berrien County, 
302; trip from Chieago to Buffalo(1836) in sailing vessel Mil- 
waukee, 72(n.82); impressions of vSt. Clair region, 162; Society in 
America, 558 

Maryland, settlers from, 316, 442(n.l48) 

Mason, Emily V., Chapters from the Autobiography of an Octoge- 
narian (1830-50), 575 

Mason, Governor Stevens T., message respecting canals, 75(n.91); 
appoints Pierce first Supt. of Public Instruction, 341; village 
named for, 458 

Mason (Ingham Co.), settlement, 458 

Mason village (Branch Co.), 289 

Massachusetts, settlers from, 183, 238, 239, 261, 273, 316, 376, 
379, 422(n.71), 437(n.l30), 442(n.l48), 482 

Mathews, Lois Kimball, The Expansion of New England, 547 

McCoy, Rev. Isaac, 259; visits Grand Rapids mission, 421, 422; 
advocates removal of the Indians from Michigan, 59(n.37) 

McKenney, on French farming(1826), 107; impressions of Detroit, 
135, 149; Tour to the Lakes, 558 

Mechanics' Society, Detroit (18 18), 130(n.l08), 131 

Meldrum and Park, Detroit firm,117(n.65) 

Melish, Geographical Description, 561; Information and Advice, 
559; Traveller's Directory, 559 

Mendon(St. Joseph Co.), 258(n.41) 

Methodists, 43(n.l00); 548(Stevens) ; at Grand Rapids, 430; 
sketch of, in Detroit, 588(Amold); early history, 573(Griffith); 
sketch of itinerant preaching, 5 75 (Crawford) 

Michigan, Lake, opening of steam navigation, 31; first steamboat 
on, 72(n.81); eariy navigation, 254, 420, (1836) 438, (1837) 
439; steamboat line projected between St. Joseph and Chicago, 
339 

Michigan Central Railroad, see Central Railroad 

Michigan Southern Railroad Company, 80(n.l09); see Southern 
Railroad 

Middlebury College(Connecticut), 345 (n. 167) 

Middletown (Clinton Co.), 413, 418, 461 

Milford (Oakland Co.), 224 

Military, see Battles, Black Hawk War, Forts, War of 1812 

Militia, in Black Hawk War, 60 

Miller, Judge Albert, 379(n.53), 395 

Mills, relation to settlement, 192; at Grand Rapids, 427; in 
Kalamazoo Valley, 336; in Saginaw country, 25, 398; on going 



616 INDEX 

to mill, 572(Northrup), 573(Hutchins); see Manufactures, and 
names of cities, villages and rivers 

Mill Creek (Washtenaw Co.), 232 

Minerals of Southern Michigan, distribution, 11; in the Saginaw 
country, 366 

Mineral Springs, 14; at Eaton Rapids, 412(n.31) 

Missions, Indian, 490; article on, 565 (Heydenburk) ; at Grand 
Rapids, 421-422; work of John D. Pierce, 341; sketch of George 
N. Smith, 580(Wilson); see Carey Mission, Ferry, and Slater 

Moetown (Eaton Co.), 450 

Mohawk and Genesee Turnpike, 73 

Money, scarcity of, after War of 1812, 49, 126; "wild-cat" money, 
67(n.61) 

Monroe, James, report on Michigan lands to Jefferson, 51; village 
named for, 153 

Monroe, waterpower, 27; trail from, to Lenawee County, 208; 
settlement (1813-37), 153-156; land office established (1824), 
173; glass manufacture, 13; shipbuilding, 31; steamboat leaves 
for Buffalo(1834), 155; first shipment of flour from Michigan, 
156; whipping post used, 88 

Monroe County, bibliography, 582; contour map, 22(n.72); soil, 
17(n.58); depths of soil, 16(n.57); soil and forest, 95; limestone, 
13, 14; mineral spring, 14; climate, 5(n.l4); forests, 40; estab- 
blished and organized, 533; settlement, 153-157, 171-176; popu- 
lation (1830), 180, 181; (1834), 181; (1837), 182; censuses, 533, 
537; German settlers, 185 

Monroe Company, 460 

Monroe Road, Detroit to the rapids of the Miami (1818), 75 

Monteith, John, president of first university, 152, 371 

Montgomery Plains (Eaton Co.), 449 

Moravians, in Detroit, 589(Burton); at Mt. Clemens, 582 (Ford), 
582 (Bush), 582 (Day) 

Mormons, in Oakland County, 242(n.213) 

Morris' Mills (Oaldand Co.), 224(n.l27) 

Morse's Geography, influence on settlement, 51, 56; Traveller's 
Guide, 559 

Mosquito, pest to settlers, 47 ; article by Van Buren, 565 

Mottville, 263, 273, 274, 291 

Mt. Clemens, Moravians, 582(Ford); settlement (1818-37), 157- 
160, 184; stage route to (1834), 76(n.93); early settlement, 582 
(Bissell), 582 (Mrs. Stewart); glass manufacture, 13; shipbuild- 
ing, 31; relation to the settlement of Oakland County, 200 

Mullet, John, surveyor, 313 

Municipal utilities, at Detroit (1815), 128 

Muskegon, 441 



INDEX 617 

Muskegon County, 441 ; bibliography, 582 
Muskegon Lake, 441 

Napoleon, sandstone at, 13 

Navarre, Francois (1800), 117(n. 66); biographical sketch, 118(n.67) 

Navigation, bibliography, 567; of rivers, 29; of Clinton River, 24, 
206(n.45); of Kalamazoo River, 322; of Paw Paw River, 323 
(n.77); in the Saginaw country, 397; see Harbor improvements. 
Transportation, and names of lakes and rivers 

Negroes, in Old Northwest, 548(Smith); in Cass County, 302; in 
Detroit, 147; census(1837), 539; see Slavery 

Nellist, J. F., soil map of Michigan, 16(n.58) 

New Albany (Clinton Co.), 461 

Newark (Allegan Co.), 330 

New Buffalo, 299, 300; extreme winter temperature, 4; first 
settled, 278; settlement, 576(Bishop) 

Newbury (Lapeer Co.), 384(n.83) 

Newbury port (St. Joseph), 276 

New England, immigration from, to Michigan, 183; source of 
Detroit's population, 146; settlers from, 238, 239, 314, 469 ff, 
481 (n. 27), 482; settlers at Romeo, 170; influence in Michigan, 
5 69 (Williams); expansion of, 547 (Mathews); see names of 
states 

New Hampshire, settlers from, 183, 265, 282, 289(n.l82), 341, 
379; 474ff, 481 

New Jersey, settlers from, 184, 262, 265 

Newspapers, bibliography, 571; influence of reports on early con- 
ditions in Michigan, 54; at Adrian, 237; in Allegan County, 575 
(Henderson); in Detroit, 151; at Kalamazoo, 580(Torrcy); in 
Oakland, Washtenaw and Lenawee counties, 243; in the Saginaw 
country, 373(n.30); list of, contemporary with Territorial 
period, 553; list of, in early Michigan, 56(n.24) ; 554; Ann Arbor 
State Journal, 333 (n. 120); Western Emigrant, 230; Ann Arbor 
Argus, 230(n.l58); Coldwater Observer, 288(n.l77); Michigan 
Star (Branch Co.), 289(n.l81); JacksonburgS^w/iw^/, 347 (n. 174) 
Kalamazoo Gazette, 344; Niles Gazette and Advertiser, 296(n.208) 
Oakland Chronicle, 221; St. Joseph Beacon, 245,' 314(n.39) 
Michigan Statesman and St. Joseph Chronicle, 272 

New- York, immigration from, to Michigan, 183; source of De- 
troit's population, 146; settlers from, 203, 222, 227, 238, 239, 
240, 261, 265, 266, 273, 283, 300, 303, 315, 317, 320, 321, 323, 
d>?>?,, 340, 349, 354, 375, 379, 380, 383, 394, 388, 390, 391, 431, 
432, 442, 451, 454, 464, 469ff, 479fe, 481, 482 

Niles, 295, 300; name, 296(n.208); settlement, 264; competition 
with Bertrand, 277; militia mustered at (1832), 60 



618 INDEX 

Niles (Oakland Co.}, 224(n.l27) 
Noble, Diodatus, birthplace, 183 
Norris, Mark, diary, 228(n.l46) 
North Caroline, settlers from, 257, 264 
Northern Railroad, 81(n.ll3), 389, 395(n.l34);terminal, 162 
Northern Trail, travel over (1833), 569(Tower) 
Northern Wagon Road, 396(n.l41) 
Northwest, Old, 563(Allen), 564(Storrow) 
Norvell, Hon. John, times of, 565(Norvell) 

Nottawa-sepe Prairie, first settlers, 273; settlement, 264; settle- 
ment, 586(Coffinberry) 

Oak, see Forest 

Oakland County, bibliography, 583; topography, 198; height of 
moraine, 21; soil, 194; pine-bearing soil, 14; transportation to, 
206; established and organized, 533; settlement, 187, 199; 
summary of reasons for priority of settleinent, 204; frontier 
extension (1816-37), 210-214; population( 1816-37), 217-224; 
censuses, 533, 538; epidemic of "fever and ague" in Commerce 
Township in 1840, 8 

Oak openings, preferences and prejudices of settlers, 38(n.l27); 
openings in Allegan County, 331; in Barry County, 413; in 
Calhoun County, 354; in Eaton County, 412; in Hillsdale 
County, 247 ; in Kalamazoo Valley, 318-320 ; in Oakland Count}^ 
190; in Ottawa County, 410; in Saginaw country, 364; in 
Washtenaw County, 197; getting first crop on, 40-41; Cooper's 
Oak-Openings, 318 

Oberlin College, branch attempted, in Eaton County, 450 

Ohio boundary dispute, see Boundary 

Ohio, immigration from, to Michigan, 52; source of Detroit's 
population, 146; settlers from, 202, 238, 250, 257, 261, 263, 264, 
265, 268, 273, 274, 281, 283, 301, 302, 313, 315, 316, 318, 328, 
331, 380, 451, 474 ff, 482 

Ohio, soldiers in War of 1812, 49; stock driven from, to the Sag- 
inaw country, 399 

Olivet College, 487 

Orchards, French-Canadian, 106 

Ordinance of 1787, quoted, on education, 153 

Otisco (Ionia Co.), 434(n.ll9) 

Otsego, 330, 334 

Ottawa County, bibliography, 584; physical environment, 409- 
410; pine bearing soil, 14; established and organized, 533; 
settlement, 436-442; cavise of slow settlement in western part, 
35; censuses, 533, 538 



INDEX 619 

Otter Creek, 175; French-Canadian settlements, 90, 104, inQ(n.43) 

117(n.65), 120 
Owosso, 3HH; first settlement of, 57<S(Shout); ncws])apers, ,37.i(n.30) 

Palmer, Mrs. George, reminiscences of, 585(Farranrl) 

Palmer (wSt. Clair Co.), 161 (n. 241, 242) 

Panic of 1837, 67-69; influence in Allegan County, 334; in Berrien 

County, 299(n.230); at Grand Rapids, 428; in the Saginaw 

country, 399, 400 
"Paper towns," between Monroe and Detroit, 157; near site of 

Lansing, 457; type of (Port Sheldon), 439 
Pare aux Vaches (Berrien Co.), 251 
Park, Captain Harvey, reminiscences, 583 
Patriot War(1837), effect on immigration, 149(n.l90) 
Paw Paw, 323, 334 
Paw Paw River, 323 

Peaches, first shipments from Berrien County, 298(n.223) 
Pear trees, in French-Canadian orchards, 106 
Pennsylvania, settlers from, 158, 184, 238, 239, 259, 261, 273, 

274, 303, 316, 317, 474 ff, 482; soldiers in War of 1812, 50; 

trip f ram, to Michigan{\193), 569 
Pepin, Francis, 101 (n. 14) 
Peppermint, 291 

Petersborough, 173; road to Blissfield, 209 
"Philo Veritas," on misrepresentation of St. Clair region, 164 
Physiography, Semple's Geographic Conditions, 548; of Kent 

County, 580 (Ball) 
Pierce, Rev. John D., 92, 94, 340, 341, 442, 443, 487. Origin and 

Progress of the Michigan School System, 572; Congregationalism 

in Michigan, 575, 571(Comstock), 572(Ford) 
Pigeon Lake, 439 
Pigeon Prairie, settlement, 267 
Pilcher, Rev. Elijah, Forty Years Ago, 574 
Pinckney, John D., 391 
Pine, in Ben-ien Cotmty, 277(n.l34); in Genesee County, 398; in 

the Kalamazoo Valley, 320; in Kent County, 408; in Oakland 

Countv, 190; in Ottawa Countv, 410; in the Saginaw Valley, 

365; in St. Clair County, 96, 166; cut on St. Clair River (1765), 

116(n.65), 118(n.66); see Forest, Lumbering 
Pine land, prejudice against, 38, 374; settlement of, in Allegan 

County, 331 ; in Ottawa County, 438, 440 
Pine Plains (Allegan Co.) early history, 576(Morgan) 
Pine River, "Town of St. Clair" laid out, 161 
Pioneer life, bibliography, 572; sketch of, 568(Edwards); article by 

Norton, 571; hardships, 47-48 



620 INDEX 

Pioneer songs, "Know ye the land to the emigrant dear," 574; 
"My eastern friends who wish to find," 574 

Pitcher, Zina, 368 

Plainwell, 331 (n. 113) 

Plank road, between Howell and Detroit, 397 (n. 142) 

Plymouth, settlement, 587(Utley); 587(Clarkson) 

Pokagon, Chief, 252(n.26) 

Pokagon Prairie, 293, 294, 318; population (1830), 271 

Pokagon village, founded, 261 

Poles, near Niles (Berrien Co.), 264 

Politics, pioneer, 570(Van Buren); in early Detroit, 588(Roberts) 

Pompey, Negro sold at Detroit (1794), 5 72 (Backus) 

Pontiac, 192, 370, 398, 399, 416; ford in river, 27; settlement, 201, 
219-222, 242; railroad reaches, 207(n.48); early days in, 584 
(Phipps); early history, 583(Mrs. Stewart); old letters relating to, 
584 

Pontiac Company, 219, 238 

Pontiac and Detroit Railway Company, 79 

Pontiac and Grand River Road, see Grand River Road 

Pontiac Railroad, 567 (Stevens) 

Population, bibliography, 569; article by Tucker on, 548; popu- 
lation(1834), 87; sources of, 468-482, 487-498; character of, 
482-488; distribution, 499-503; centralization, 503; classes, 504; 
process of settlement, 498-499; distribution and sources of 
population in eastern shore counties, 179-185; in southeastern 
Michigan (1834-37), 284-301; in the Saginaw country, 400-406; 
at Grand Rapids(1837), 429; sources of, in Kalamazoo Valley, 
312-315, 359-363; population of Cass, St. Joseph, Branch, Hills- 
dale, and Berrien counties in 1834, 250; sources of, in south- 
western Michigan, 301; in St. Joseph Valley, 257; Century of 
Growth in U. S., 562 (North); comparison of St. Joseph Valley 
with eastern shore counties, 257; see Immigration, and names 
of states, counties, cities and villages 

Portage Prairie, settlement of, 264, 277 

Portage River, 393 

Porter, Governor, price of farm (1835), 140 

Porter village, 295 

Port Huron, 162; origin of name, 586(Horton) 

Portland, 430; founding, 434-435 

Port Lawrence (Toledo) 176(n.306); railroad to, 80 

Port Sheldon (Ottawa Co.), 439 

Postal service, at Detroit (1818), 125; (1826), 135; (1834), 137, 
138(n.l38) 

Potash, by-product of clearing land, 44 

"Potato" Bronson, founder of Kalamazoo, 328 



INDEX 621 

Potawatomis, 260(n.44), 273; Poiawatomis, 565(Copley); village 
at Kalamazoo, 418; see Indians 

Prairie Creek, 410 

Prairie River, 282, 461 

Prairie Ronde, 282, 311, 313, 314, 315, 316, 352, 353, 355, 435 
(n.l20) 

Prairies, in Kalamazoo Valley, 310-312; in the St. Joseph Valley, 
248-249; in Southwestern Michigan, advantages for settlement, 
34; getting first crop on, 41, 42; see names of prairies, Baldwin, 
Be'ardsley, Big Prairie Ronde, Bronson, Climax, Cocoosh, 
Coldwater, Cook, Dry, Genesee, Goguac, Gourd-neck, Grand, 
Gull, La Grange, Little Prairie Ronde, Nottawa, Pokagon, 
Portage, Sturgis, Toland, White Pigeon, and Wolf 

Prairieville, environment, 413 

Preemption Act, see Squatter's rights 

Presbyterians, in Detroit, 588; at Grand Rapids, 430; at Kalama- 
zoo, 346; sketch of Church in Blissfield, Lenawee County, 581 
(Kedzie) 

Press, see Newspapers 

Price, Captain, 370 

Prices of city lots at Dctroit(1824), 133; (183o), 140, 141(n.l5,^); 
in Grand Rapids(1836-37j, 427; in the Saginaw country (1830), 

373 

Protestant Society, First, in Detroit, 130(n.l08j, 133 
Pulaski, early history, 580 (Hodge) 
Puritans, see New England 
Putnam, Uzziel, 261 

Quakers, 242; at Battle Creek, 348; in Cass County, 294, 302; 
"^ at Farmington, 224; at Tecumseh, 236(n.l84); trip from Phil- 
adelphia to Deiroit(l793), 569 
Quincv, settlement. 289(n.l82). article by Fisher. 5// 

Railro^d^ -^r^t 75- list of. authoriz;5d by the legislature (1S35 - 
36)."79(n.l65); process of building, S2(n.ll5); 'i«^^/3i//' ^\^^ 
Michigan, 568 (Jov) ; Detroit and Pontiac Railroad, 207_(n.48), 
567 (Stevens); see names of railroads: Central, Detroit and 
St. Joseph, Erie and Kalamazoo, Northern, Southern, Raism 

River 
Railway, Canadian, to Detroit (1836), 142(n.l60) 
Rainfall, influence on climate, 6 . .«^ . 

Raisin River, 175; description, 23; beauty of. 19/; waterpowe^, 

188; massacre, influence, 57; explormg expedition(1823 . 203; 

navigation, 29; French-Canadian settlements, 100, 101, 104. 



622 INDEX 

105, 109, 110, 117, 119 (n.66), 120; Detroit Gazette article 
(1822), 564; harbor improvement, 31 

Raisin River Railroad, 174 

Reed's Lake, 409 

Religion, 486; see names of religious denominations 

Rhode Island, settlers from, 432, 475 

Rice Creek, 335 

Richard, Father Gabriel, 92, 487; biographical sketch, 115(n.61); 
delegate to Congress, 149; services in behalf of Chicago Road, 
76(n.96); interest in education, 115; teacher in first university, 
152(n.203); Life and Times of, 566(Girardin); A Catholic Priest 
in Congress, 566(Weadock) 

Richland (Kent Co.), early history, 580(Withey) 

Risdon, Orange, map of Michigan(1825), 56(n.23), 590 

Rivers, influence on French-Canadian settlement, 96ff; relation 
to settlement, 23-30; rivers of the Saginaw country, 397; of 
western Michigan, description, 25(n.81); see Drainage, Lum- 
bering, and names of rivers 

Roads, 206; bibliography, 568; materials for, 12; effect of War of 
1812 on, 49, 53; military Road, Saginaw to Mackinac, 568 
(Wilhams); national military Road, 75-78; Territorial Road, 
78; condition of, between Adrian and Toledo(1833), 80; roads 
from Detroit(1837), 141; from Mt. Clemens, 160; along shores 
of Lake Erie, 74; see Maps, and Atlases 

Robinson, Rix, 438; at Ada, 431(n.l04); at Grand Haven, 436; 
monument at Ada, 436(n.l27) 

Rochester (Oakland Co.), settlement, 200, 222 

Rocky River, French-Canadian settlement, 99, 101 (n. 14) 

Romeo, 169 

Ross, R. B., Landmarks of Detroit and Michigan (see Catlin, 
G. B.), 553 

Rouge R_i\'er, 177, 178; drainage area, 27; French-Canadian 
settlements, 98. 99, 101, 102, 103, 117 

Routes of travel, see Transportation 

Ro^al Oak (Oakland Co.)., 2-23, 397 (n. 142) 

Royalston (Mass.), settlers from, 174 

Royalton (Berrien Co.), 299 

Rumsey, Elisha W., 230 

Sac and Fox Indians, in Black Hawk War, 60 

Saginaw, 377, 378, 398, 399, 400, 401; military post(1823), 367; 
early military occupation, 5 84 (Whiting) ; trip from Detroit to 
(1822), 568(Cole); early daysilSoj), 584(Williams) 

Saginaw Canal, projocted, 75(n.91) 



INDEX 623 

Saginaw County, 378-380, 401, 402-403, 405; bibliography, 584; 

pine-bearing soil, 14; established and organized, 534; censuses,' 

534, 538 
Saginaw country, 364-406; early reports of, 367-374; salt, 11 
Saginaw River, drowned valley, 24; navigation, 372(n.28) 
Saginaw Road, 76, 206(n.46), 213. 416; travel over{m29 or 1830), 

569(Williams) ; (1832), 568(McCormick) ; (1833), 569(Havncs)- 

(1833), 569(Williams) ; in Genesee County, 404 
Saginaw Trail, 200, 372, 380, 394, 401(n.l62); difficulties of 

travel, 205; travel over (1822), 568(Colc) 
Saginaw, Treaty of (1819), 59 
Saginaw Valley, physical environment, 364; pioneer life in, 584 

(McCormick), 585 (Miller); Pioneer Piety, 517 
St. Clair, settlement of(1765-1837), 160-166; shipbuilding, 31 
St. Clair County, bibhography, 585; soil, 17(n.58); soil and forest 

96; early exploration, 165; established and organized, 534 

settlement, 160-166, 184; population (1830), 180; (1834), 181 

(1837), 182; censuses, 534, 538 
St. Clair, Lake, French-Canadian settlement, 103; Colton's des- 
cription (1830), 574 
St. Clair River, description, 25(n.80); British post(1765), 116 

(n.65); French-Canadian settlements, 99, 103, 1 10 ; impressions 

of settlement (Mrs. Jameson), 163; (Lanman), 163(n.252); 

(Harriet Martineau), 163 
St. Johns, 464 
St. Joseph, 297; fort at, 265; settlement, 265, 266, 275, 276; 

county seat removed to, 276(n.l29); steamboat line projected, 

339; population (1834), 276 
St. Joseph country, compared with Saginaw country, 372 
St. Joseph County, bibliograjohv, 586; estabhshed and organized, 

253, 534; settlement, 262-264, 267, 272-274; population(1830), 

270; censuses, 534, 538; source of population, 303 
St. Joseph River, 305; description. 25; navigation. 29, 2/6, 292; 

influence in Hillsdale County. 268; commerce in Berrien County, 

298 
St. Joseph Valley, first notice of, 263, 267 
Saline (Washtenaw Co.), site of deer-lick, 12; settlement, 231 
Saline Creek settlement in Macomb County, 12 
Saline River, 176, 214, 232 
Salmon, Lucy, Education in Michigan during the Territorial Period, 

571 
Salt, early importance, 11; bibliography of the Michigan salt 

industry, 11 (n. 35); in the Saginaw country, 366; at Saline, in 

Washtenaw County, 232 
Sand, along Lake Michigan shore, 409 



624 INDEX 

Sandy Creek, French-Canadian settlements, 99, 104, 109(n.43), 

117(n.66), 120 
Saranac, founding, 435 

Saugatuck, 325, 329; notes on, 5 76 (Henderson) 
Savoyard River, 98 (n. 7) 

Sawyer, F., Jr., president Detroit Young Men's Society, 151 
Schneider, C. F., 3(n.6) 

Schmidt, Pastor, in Ann Arbor, 148, 380(n.59) 
Schoolcraft, Henry R., 311, 351, 356; Summary Narrative, rapid 

sale, 53, 558 
Schoolcraft village, 435 (n. 120) 

Schools, see Education, Academies, Colleges, University 
"Sciawassa Exploring Party," 414(n.35), 416 
"Sciawassee Company," 371 
Scott, Captain David, 464; "Scott's," 464 
Scotch, 474, 476; in Livingston Cotnity, 391 (n. 116); in Macomb 

County, 185; in Oakland County, 241; in vSaginaw County, 380 
Scotch-Irish, in Southwestern Michigan, 303 
Seares, John, 421 

Semple, E. C, American History and its Geographic Conditions, 548 
Settlement, extent of, in Michigan (1837), 19 
vSeymour, ex-Governor Horatio, 459 
Sheldon, (Mrs.) E. M., Early History of Michigan, 550 
Shiawassee, 376, 386, 387, 405; Exchange Bank of, 569(Huggins) 
Shiawassee County, 376, 401; bibliography, 585; soil, 17(n.58); 

established and organized, 534; censuses, 534, 538; banking in, 

569(Huggins) 
vShiawassee River, 385, 386, 390; navigation, 397(n.l42) 
"Shingle Diggings" (Berrien Co.), 277 
Shipbuilding, beginnings, 31; at Saginaw, 398; in St. Clair County 

(1825), 161(n.244), 166(n.261) 
Siblev, Solom.on. birthplace, 183 
Smclair, Patrick, at post en St Clair Rrver, llt);n65) 
"Singaccr8''(Alleean CcO, 330 
Slater, Leonard. 422, 423; skoich, 5Sl(Hoyt; 
Slavery, 486; bibliography, 572; relation of, to admission of 

Michigan to the Union, 87(n.l32); influence on settlement, 261; 

in Berrien County, 302 ; absence of, in Detroit, 147 
Smith, George N. Sketch of his missionary work, 5 80 (Wilson) 
Smith, Jacob, 375 
Snow Prairie, settlement, 279 
Soils, 14; classification adopted by Blois, 39; formation, 15; 

thickness, 15-16; fineness 16; advantages, 17; favor density in 

hardwbb'd b'elt, 40; relation of Variety of soils to tiinb"cr, 37; 



INDEX 625 

to crops, 38; in Kalamazoo Valley, 310; in Oakland, Washtenaw 
and Lenawee counties, 192, 193; in the St. Joseph Valley, 246; 
in Wayne County, 177; lectures by Winchell, 548 

Soule, Anna May, Boundaries of Michigan, 565 

South Carolina, settlers from, 302 

South Haven, 324 

Southern Railroad, 81 (n. 113), 237, 287; early movement for, in 
St. Joseph Valley, 254(n.32) ; terminal at St. Joseph, 299 

Speculation, see Lands 

Spicerville Colony(Eaton Co.), 451(n.l82) 

Spring Arbor, 354 

Spring Hill, Catholic academy, 116 

Springs, 189; scarcity in heavy clay lands, 97; see Drainage 

Spring ville (Lenawee Co.), 357 

Squatter's rights, 63; preemption Act of 1830, 65 

Stages, see Transportation and travel 

State government, agitation for, 85 

State prison, 347 

State rights, hinted, 86 

Strawberries, abundance, 44 

Steamboats, on Lake Erie, 568; see Lakes, Great; and names of 
boats 

Stephenson, George, experiment with the "Rocket," 79 

Stewart, Aura P., birthplace, 184 

Stewart, John, 227 (n. 144) 

Stony Creek(Oakland Co.), 224(n.l27) 

Stony Island, land purchased, 117(n.66) 

Sturgis Prairie, settlement, 263, 290 

Sturgis, trip from, to Grand Rapids, 419(n.54) 

Suffrage, in Michigan, 5 63 (Chancy) 

Sugar, maple, abundance, 44; making, 573(Hutchins) 

Summer of 1816, cold, 4(n.9) 

Sunday School Association, Detroit(1818), 130 

Superior, first trip, 70 

Survey, U. S., of Oakland County, 200; of Washtenaw and Lena- 
wee counties, 201; of the Saginaw country, 367; see Claims, 
French, Land, Tiffin 

Swamps, along shores of Lake Erie, 74; "Interminable Swamp," 
on maps of Michigan, 51 

Swan Creek, French-Canadian settlements, 98 

Swiss, 475 

Taxation, at Detroit (1824), 133(n.l21); apportionment of taxes 

for 1837, 540 
Tecumseh, 192; waterpower, 26; settlement, 173(n.292), 197, 203, 
79 



626 INDEX 

233-236, 242; letter on early history, 581 (Brown); history of press, 
571 (Baxter) 

Tekonsha, 354 

Tennessee, settlers from, 257, 301 

"Ten Thousand Acre Tract," at Detroit, 136 

Territorial Road, authorized and stuveyed, 208, 78; description 
of route, 81(n.ll0); influence, 326, 347; in Kalamazoo Valley, 
336; travel, 307, (1830-37), 337-339; travel to Grand River 
region, 417 

Thorn Apple River, environment, 412; trail, 418; navigation, 419 
(n,54) 

Thread River, 398, 402; settlements on, 381 

Three Rivers, 273, 274, 292; branch of University, 293 

Thunder Bay River, treaty boundary (18 19), 59 

Tiffin, Edward, report on Michigan lands, 50; effects of report 
wane, 55 

Timber, in Wayne County, 177; see Forest 

Tittabawassee River, settlers on, 380 

Todd, John, 376(n.38) 

Toland Prairie, 313 

Topography, influence on climate, 6-7; "diagonal system," 18; 
shore lands, 20; advantages for agriculture, 20; dunes, 20; 
relation to drainage, 22; relative elevation shown by profiles 
of railway beds, 22(n.73 and 74); discussed by Winchell, 548; 
of Kalamazoo Valley, 306; of Washtenaw County, 189(n. 4) 

Township government, 90; as an index to settlement, 91 (n. 150) 

Trade, bibliography, 567; at Detroit, after War of 1812, 127 
(n.94); at Detroit(1818), 126, 140-141; at Monroe(1817), 154 
(n.209); relations of settlements in the Saginaw country, 398- 
400; Trials of Pioneer Business Men, 5 73 (Goodrich) 

Trails, 282, 331; at fording places, 26; along Huron River, 207; 
along Clinton River, 206; through Ingham and Livingston 
counties, 416; between Owosso and Saginaw, 396; from Monroe 
to Lenawee County, 209; in the Kalamazoo Valley, 324-326; 
between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, 418; between Allegan 
and Grand Rapids, 419(n.54); through Barry County, 418-419; 
from Marshall to Ionia, 418; see names of trails 

Transportation, 69-82 ; bibliography, 567 ; early routes from East 
to West, 74(n.87); relative cost of, from Michigan, to East, 55; 
changes in transportation, 69-82; in southeastern Michigan, 282; 
in Monroe County (1822), 173; in Oakland, Washtenaw and 
Lenawee counties, 205-210; on Territorial Road(1830-1837), 
337-339; in the Kalamazoo Valley, 307; in the St. Joseph Valley, 
253-256; to Hillsdale County, 285; in southwestern Michigan, 



INDEX 627 

281; Dexter's route to Ionia, 377; transportation in the Grand 
River region, 415-421; in Ottawa County, 410; in the Saginaw 
country, 394-398; see Ferries, Navigation, Steamboats, Roads, 
Railroads, and names of roads and railroads 

Travel bibliography, 555, 568; Detroit to Buffalo in Winter 
(1819), 125(n.89); Ohio to Detroit, via Monroe{\Zm), 568(Nor- 
thrup); in Kalamazoo Valley, 316; in Van Buren County (1836), 
335; in southwestern Michigan, 263; early conditions, 546 
(Cutler) ; see Evans, Hoffman, Jameson,. Martineau, McKenney, 
Swan, Roads and names of Roads 

Treaties, Greenville (1795), 59(n.32); Detroit (1807), 58; Indians 
dissatisfied with, 57; Saginaw(1819), 59; article on, by Williams, 
565; by Weber, 565; Chicago(1821), 59, 251; result of Chicago 
treaty for missions, 421; treaty of 1833, 251, 273; Washington 
(1836), 59; general discussion of IMichigan treaties, by Felch, 
565 

Trees, variety in Kalamazoo Valley, 320; see Forest 

Tremble's Creek, mill(1818), 127(n.95) 

Troops, U. S., victims of cholera epidemic, 61 

Trowbridge, Charles C, 333(n.ll7); Detroit in 1819, 588; Detroit, 
Past and Present, 588; The First Saw-Mill in Detroit, 588; 
History of the Episcopal Church in Michigan, 574 

Turner, Jerome W., 394 

Turner, Middle West, 555; Colonization of the West, 555; Problem 
oj the West, 555; contributions of the West, 555; Significance of 
the Frontier, 564 

Unadilla, 393 

Underground Railroad, 236(n.l84); at Battle Creek, 348 

Union, (Cass Co.), founded, 262 

Union City, 354; settlement, 281, 289 

Union College, 437 (n. 130) 

University of Michigan, 231(n.l61); branch at Kalamazoo, 346; 

branch at Monroe, 156; branch at Niles, 296; branch at Pontiac, 

221; branch at White Pigeon, 293 
Utica (Macomb Co.), 171 
Utica and Schenectady Railroad, 80 
Utley, Henry M. et al., Michigan as a Province Territory and State, 

550 

Van Buren, A. D. P., articles on pioneer life, 572 
Van Buren County, bibliography, 586; pine lands, 321; prairies, 
318; cold winter"^of 1842-43, 6(n.20); estabHshcd and organized, 



628 INDEX 

534; settlement, 356; population, 359-363; censuses, 534, 539; 

fruit growing, 4(n.9) 
Van Buren (Van Buren Co.), 324 
Vermont, settlers from, 238, 261, 263, 273, 278, 289(n.l82), 315, 

317, 331, 381, 435(n.l20), 442(n.l48), 446, 451, 474 ff, 482; 

trip from, to Michigan, (1838), 569(Hinman) 
Vermontville, 418; environment, 412; settlement, 444-449; early 

history, 5 78 (Barber) 
Verona (Calhoun Co.), rivalry with Battle Creek, 577(Van Buren) 
Versailles, relation to early plan of Detroit, 123(n.82) 
Vicksburg, 312, 336, 356 
Virginia, settlers from, 208, 227, 238, 257, 264, 273, 300, 302, 315, 

316, 474 ff, 482; source of Detroit's population, 146; soldiers 

in War of 1812, 50 
Virginia Land Company, 299 
Votieur, buys land on St. Clair River from Patrick Sinclair, 

116(n.65) 

Wacousta (Clinton Co.), 462 

Walk-in-the-Water, first trip (1818), 70; carries freight to Mack- 
inac(1819), 71 

Ward's Landing (St. Clair Co.), 162 

War of 1812, muster roll, 589; original papers relating to, 510; 
history of, 545(Brackenridge); official papers, 546 (ed. by Bran- 
nan); official accounts 547 (ed. by Fay); history of, 547(M'Afee), 
548(Thomson), 5 48 (Williams); effect on prices at Detroit, 126; 
on settlement, 49-50; on road building, 75; on Territorial 
government, 83 

Ward, Captain Samuel, Memoir of, 568(Bancroft) 

Washington, treaty of, 59 

Washtenaw County, bibliography, 586; topography, 189(n.4); 
beauty of landscape, 197; soil, 194; name, 197; transportation 
to, 207; established and organized, 534; settlement, 199, 201- 
203, 224-233; population, 468(n.l); censuses, 534, 539; frontier 
extension( 1823-3 7), 214-216; relation to settlement in Kalamazoo 
Valley, 328; Society for the Information of Emigrants, 225; 
Germans, 148 

Washtenaw Trail, 214, 215, 281, 305, 310 

Waterford (Oakland Co.), 200 

Water power, 326; related to topography, 22, 23; motive of settle- 
ment, 262; of southern Michigan, 27(n.83); eastern belt of 
power sites, 27; on creeks, 27; in Oakland, Washtenaw and 
Lenawee counties, 187-189, 193; on the Huron, 24, 229(n.l55); 
at Monroe, 13; in the Kalamazoo Valley, 321; in Barry County, 



INDEX 629 

413; in Clinton County, 413; in Van Buren County, 334; at 

Grand Rapids, 13, 409; at Owosso, 388; in the Saginaw country, 

365; see Rivers, names of rivers and villages 
Watcrvillc (Ionia Co.), 434(n.ll9) 
Wayne County, bibliography, 587; limestone, 13, 14; soil and 

forest, 17(n.58), 40, 95; established and organized, 534; settle- 

ment(1824-37), 177-179; population (1830), 180, 181; (1834), 

181; (1837), 182; censuses, 534, 539; Gemian settlers, 185; 

early schools, 571(Tibbits) 
Wheat, first crop, 320; prices (1837), 399; in New York and Mich 

igan (1824-61), 5 74 (Shearer) 
Wildcat, see Animals 
"Wild-cat" banking, see Banking 
Winter of 1842-43, cold, 6(n.20) 
Whipping post, abolished, 88 

Whiskey, 264, 421, 422; influence on settlement, 261 
Whitaker, Captain Wessel, 278, 300 
White, Nathan, 438(n.l31) 
Whitefish, see Lakes, Great 
White Oak (Ingham Co.), 417 
White Pigeon, 355, 357, 433; settlement, 272; population(1827), 

263; (1830), 271; land office, 271 
White Pigeon Prairie, 263; settlement, 290, 291; first crops, 269 
White Rock, boundary point in Indian cession of 1807, 58 
Whitewood, see Forest 
Whitmanville (Cass Co.), 294 

Whittier, John G., poem, "The Prisoner for Debt." 
Williams, Gardner D., 377 
Williams, Harvey, 379(n.53), 394 
Williams, Oliver, sketch, S^Z 
Williams College, graduates, 183 
Winchell, Alexander, judgment as to products suited to southern 

Michigan, 5 
Wing, Austin E., 225 (n. 129), 234; birthplace, 183; biographical 

sketch, 203(n.37) 
Women, pioneers, 580(Yan Buren); wages, at Detroit(1819), 

130(n.l09) 
Wolf's Prairie, 264, 275 
Woodbridge, William, birthplace, 183 
Woodruff, Benjamin, 202, 227 
Woodruff's Creek, 393 
Woodruff's Grove, 202, 227 (n. 142), 238 
Woodward, Judge, 228; letter to Madison(1807) on conditions of 

settlement in Michigan, 575; report on French farms(1806), 



630 INDEX 

104; characterization of French-Canadians, 112; opinion on 
slavery, 572; buys land near site of Ypsilanti, 202; center of 
attack for misrule of Judges, 85 (n. 125); student of the classics, 
152 
Wyandotte, 157; settlement, 587(Christian) 

"Yankee" contempt for thriftlessness of French-Canadians, 109 
Yankee Springs, 418, 419; environment, 413; settlement, 454; 

founding, 576(Hoyt) 
Young's Prairie, 302 
Ypsilanti, 227-228, 238; French trading post(1809), 101, 199, 

201; transportation to, 207, 208; arrival of first train, 81 (n. 113); 

typical pioneer school, 93(n.l56); settlement, 586(Geddes) 



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